On 12/25/2012 10:39 AM, MichaelJF wrote:
> On 25-12-2012 4:21, Patrick Elliott wrote:
>> And.. hair color is worse how than the very common practice in parts of
>> the world where they do that if its a girl? Yeah, most of us are likely
>> to see it as crossing a line. But, like with so much other such things,
>> I would bet my next paycheck that the first asshole using such a model
>> would be some Biblical literalist, who didn't want their kid to be left
>> handed, or something (because its like, of the devil, etc.)
>
> I wouldn't have put it such explicitely but even an ultrasonic investigation can
> yield "unwanted" results. I was more concerned about recent discussions here in
> Germany about preimplantation genetic diagnosis. And yes I'm of the devil
> myself, having my mouse at the left side of the keyboard...
>
With every thing we come up with that can produce good results, we also 
present the possibility of misuse. Knowing, from "pre-testing" that your 
kid has a high risk of a heart problem means you know enough to look 
for, and possibly repair it, for example. It also means that you could 
just decide you don't want a kid with freckles.

Invariably, someone abuses things, and some societies decide to allow 
it, some don't, and eventually, some sort of balance is reached. But, 
its hardly different than someone drowning children, or leaving them out 
in the cold ***while already alive***, based on the fact that they have 
a birth mark, and someone's society thinks that birth marks are a sign 
of evil, or some such. As a rule, we have, as a whole, abandoned such 
nonsense. At least most of us anyway. Many that have not, find that the 
rest won't let them continue such things. The real danger isn't that the 
possibility exists, its that a society may rise to power, by what ever 
means, that doesn't just make such things possible (along with a much 
larger range of good things), but promotes some ideology that makes such 
things "appropriate", such as the one, in much of Asia, which treats 
female children as less desirable than males, and "does" sometimes, 
whether its legal or not, to decide if they have a particular child.

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