QUESTION:

If you could 'enhance' your unborn children by genetically modifying them, would you?

Oh I so love ethics.

I had this discussion with the boys a few years back. Went something like this:

"If by the time you two have kids, human genetic modification is on offer- will you enhance them?"

"NO!" Was the emphatic first reaction. "Why have cyborg kids?"

"So you'd be perfectly fine with making them start life handicapped and disadvantaged?"

"Whaaat?"

"Well others may not be as resistant as you. What if your kids have to compete with other cyborg ones? What if your kids turn to you one day and say "How could you have done this to me? Who gave you the right to deny me this huge advantage? I hate you!""

"Hhhmmmhhh..."

"So do you have that right? To make such vital decisions on their behalf- decisions based on your  current morality and ethics?"

"Still wouldn't want a cyborg kid."

"It's not about what you want! It's about the responsibility you'd carry as a parent: How to best prepare them for the future ahead! And you two haven't exactly had 'mainstream' lives?"

"Hhhmmmhhh..."

I couldn't blame them. Much as they had embraced technology and were thriving within it - as they'd also thrived away from traditional education and child-rearing - the idea of 'modifying' their kids didn't sit well. But it's coming. Maybe not their generation- but maybe their grandkids... maybe they'll be cyborgs.

What came immediately, however, was that question:

"Would you have modified us mum?"

"Hhhmmmhhh..."

I honestly couldn't and can't say. Would I have? How does one push aeons of ethics to the side and willingly 'enhance' (muck about with) nature and evolution? And this, purely to ensure a level playing field? We're talking genes and high tech here. Not just the sex or the eye colour or... picking a donor with a significant IQ.

We're talking merging them with technology- else modifying DNA to enhance their physical/mental prowess... (And any associated risks these may pose to the parent/child connection- if we're not also proportionately enhancing their emotional intelligence.)

And this, just so they are 'not left behind'.

Could you? Would you?