Help with a gene question?

Question

In the movie GATTACA, vincent's parents select a fertilized embryo that is genetically engineered to make him male,more intelligent,stronger,and to have certain physical features. It is now possiable to determine the gendger of an embryo before it is transferred to your womb. should you be allowed to direct your doctor to select embryos on the basis of there sex? If it became possible for yourphysician to selet more a specfic traits for your fetus (like strength or intelligence) would you do so?

Answer 1

I would NOT like to see parents asking the doctor to select for a certain sex. Natural birth ratios are very close to 1 boy: 1 girl. I expect that the ratio of boys would go up at the expense of the girls in North America because our society still values boys over girls -- carrying on the name, and so on. It's not right, but it's still evident.

I'm a pretty firm believer in natural selection, and I don't think it's a good idea to mess with the natural scheme of things as far as characteristics of offspring are concerned.

The exception I would make to this point of view would be in the matter of hereditary diseases.

Answer 2

After all, we need to leave nature to do the selection. Otherwise, we would reedit all the superiority tesis that let Adolf Hitler to get adepts...
Beside, who knows who is "better"? Male? Female? The stronger? The most intelligent? We need to promote diversity as a way of understanding and tolerate the different. The more diverse we are, evolution will have their own meanings (I think better) to select among them.