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One step to Frankenstein?

Well I, for one, welcome our new Ubermensch Overlords=D

nukhan.jpg
 
I cannot wait for the first litigation when parents w and s learn their newborn isn’t going to be the next Handel, has a rather large forehead, one blue eye and one green, and is black!
Careful now with such predictions. ;)
There was this recent Royal Wedding....allegedly.
 
Just like when you put your child in harms way (to a degree) by making them get chicken pox when their mates have it, If the scientist remove a certain gene it may have unforeseen consequences if that gene does something else also.
 
I remember when I was at school, we had the Edward Lawson Centre up the road from it and numerous children went there every morning picked up in a blue and yellow Motherwell District Council "special" bus. There was a girl at my school with spina bifida. You always used to always see these kids about, not so much these days though, almost as if they don't exist anymore.

Down syndrome - Wikipedia

That's fine when it comes to getting rid of debilitating physical conditions of course but then I've seen other things regarding genetic engineering where the talk is of removing "undesirable" features such as depression or being able to remove "bad" experiences or thoughts from the brain. Engineering the brain so the subject always feels bliss, no matter how badly they're treated. Of course what constitutes a "bad" thought or experience will be decided by the politicians and government of the day....?

An interesting subject that you could quite easily get into tin foil hat thinking about. Kind of glad I'm 45 and won't see this potential brave new world :)

It would ruin my joke if they got rid of downs, no point having a dog called Syndrome then :(
 
Just like when you put your child in harms way (to a degree) by making them get chicken pox when their mates have it, If the scientist remove a certain gene it may have unforeseen consequences if that gene does something else also.
Indeed.
child-yellow-rooster-costume.jpg


Don't worry this is only a costume. no chickens were hurt in the taking of this photo.
 
We are in the very early stages of research, and I think the press have jumped the gun a bit and are being sensationalist when talking about "Designer babies".
As far as I understand we are at the stage where a sensible research scientist can take some stem cells and grow them into the form of some other cells that will not be rejected by the patients immune system.
I keep mentioning my old mate, but this is relevant.
He used to be a heart surgeon, and was a bit pissed off that in order to do a heart bypass he would have to butcher the patients healthy arm or leg to retrieve a decent vein to graft onto the diseased heart.
So he started mucking around in the lab with stem cells.
He got them to reproduce in a petri dish but they were only growing into some sort of mush.

One day an old boy of a lab technician was working on what looked like the perfect vein, and he asked him where it was from.
The old boys awnser was "I grew it".
He then showed him a machine that he had cobbled together from bits and pieces around the lab. All of them cheap and in sterile packs that enabled the cells to grow onto a form of scaffold.
A eureka moment. and possibly the first practical use of regenerative medicine, you won't see it on the nhs anytime soon but it is in the pipeline.
The old boys hobby was restoring antique clocks.
 
Just got thrown the cell therapy and genomics product development portfolios at my current employer - its hot growth area and no mistake.

“Building the tools to change lives “ or some similar bollocks dreamt up by the Marketing dept.

I hate the Marketing dept.
 
I haven't read the thread so this may have been pointed out, but Frankenstein was the guy who created Frankensteins monster.

Or I missed the point.
 
Because you can do something does not mean that you should.

Undoubtedly there will be mistakes, some of these will be good, but I suspect that the majority will be bad. So we will end up with deformed / damaged PEOPLE.

When we say "designer babies" we are playing with REAL PEOPLE and their lives.

Babies are not disposable. It's not like you have just made a prototype car that didn't work, what will you do with the ones that don't work? So the one with an arm growing where an ear should be "discarded" or that has its' feet on backwards?

We blindly walk in assuming that everyone has the same altruistic motives as we do, but what if someone wants to make a "super soldier" (Universal Soldier anyone) or even something more radical?

I am glad I am getting old. I have stopped liking the world.
 

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