It's possible that we will be able to create "enhanced" humans through Cas9 genome editing sometime in the near future; however, if I was given the option years from now to genetically modify my child to be taller, I wouldn’t opt for the height-enhancement of my child. A child is their own being, and I think there’s a beauty to the fact that parents cannot decide who or what their child is. It’s not the parents’ place to decide or control how their children will be before they can for themselves. A part of parenthood is about unconditional love for your kid, regardless of if they’re short or tall, and there seems to be something off about engineering your child to be what is considered favorable to you or to the world. A purposeful height-enhancement may damage a child’s view of their parents’ love. If a child knew that some part of them was pre-decided by their parents, it may convince them that their parents only love them because they decided what kind of child they wanted beforehand. Additionally, there is a chance that the genes altered to enhance their height were pleiotropic, which would mean we may have altered other phenotypes that would have been beneficial to the child.
Recent comments