[Exi-east] Bring on the super humans

[Joseph Bloch]

Apologies for sending something out nearly a month old, but I just came 
across it and a search of my email archives didn't bring up any hits...

Joseph

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Bring-on-the-super-humans/2005/06/08/1118123901403.html

Genetic manipulation to banish anti-social traits and improve children's 
behaviour, intellect and even sports performance should be considered, 
says a nationally honoured medical ethicist, Julian Savulescu.

Professor Savulescu, who was awarded this year's Australian Society for 
Medical Research medal, said rapid developments in genetic research 
opened the prospect of "new breeds of humans" with higher intelligence 
and freed of predisposition to criminal behaviour and depression.

Australians, he said, should embrace the potential for gene technology 
and embryo cloning, particularly if they offered the potential for 
improved quality of life.

"If this can provide us with the ability to enhance more effectively our 
children's wellbeing, to give them better opportunities for a better 
life, to fail to do so will be to be responsible for the consequences, 
including their unhappiness," he said.

Professor Savulescu said Australia should rouse itself from "dogmatic 
slumber and be open to a radically different and possibly much better life".

Research was already under way to identify athletic talent, which might 
one day be used in Olympic selection, as were genetic studies into areas 
such as addictive and sexual behaviour, intelligence and depression.

People already sought mood enhancements through nicotine, alcohol, 
caffeine and Prozac.

"Our frame of reference must shift to rationally consider genetic 
enhancements," Professor Savulescu said.

His call comes amid renewed debate over the use of stem cells involving 
the destruction of human embryos, and just as a national review of the 
regulation of this research is about to begin.

Professor Savulescu rejected arguments that genetic developments would 
break the laws of God and nature, saying that Westerners had "voted with 
their feet" about the moral status of early human life - the 100,000 
abortions a year in Australia being an example.