Are you ready to "play God" with genetic engineering?

Perhaps it will be bad for me to disclose some of my family's genetic problems in the future, but I believe that it is important at the onset of this essay to explain some of my motivation. I like children but have chosen to not have any because:

• My mother, mother's mother, mother's father, and aunt have all had skin cancer.
• My grandmother's father, her brother and her sister all suffered from Alzheimer's.
  My grandmother's mother, my grandmother, and at least one of my cousins are diabetic.
• My father's father died at about the age of 60, in part due to serious heart problems.
• Two of my father's three brothers are dead, also near the age of 60; the third had a heart attack while visiting one of the others in the hospital a couple of years ago.
  One of my father's brothers had Multiple Sclerosis.

There are some compelling reasons for at least some members of my family to pass on there genes:

• When my 5' 2" mother was 40, she had the lung capacity of a typical 6' 6" twenty year old male.
• Some of my relatives score close to the 99th percentile on intelligence tests.  I believe in the "Multiple Intelligences" theory, not necessarily what some IQ test says, but they astound some people.
• A few of my relatives have lived to be around 90 years of age.

There are more items in both groups worth mentioning.  You probably have a lot of compelling reasons to pass on your genetic code as well.  You might argue that everyone has a few potentially lethal traits and I should not worry about it, and if so I won't say that you lack a sense of responsibility.  But I don't want to take that risk.

A possible solution to my dilemma was proposed by science fiction author Robert A. Heinlein in the 1940s in Beyond this Horizon, which apparently served as inspiration for the 1997 film Gattica, starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law.  The basic premis is that manipulation of DNA has become commonplace and humanity divided between those with parents who decided to have science influence their genetic code and those who did not.  I rather like the idea of only passing along traits that would increase the strength of my offspring, in fact it's the only way that I would want to have children of my own.  Perhaps we could eliminate some of the genes that cause aging to have offspring that would live to be 200 years old or maybe with even greater longevity.

Both works of fiction predict Darwinian consequences of selecting the traits of human offspring.  The world of Beyond this Horizon was arguably a Utopian vision in which science had solved many of the problems of society, albeit long after a war that had resulted from reckless manipulation of DNA.  Gattica depicted a Dystopia society in which the genetically gifted oppressed those who were not.  Darwin didn't predict all possible consequences and I doubt that the authors of these works of fiction wouldn't argue that they could either.

I've sometimes wondered what would happen when humans decide to include characteristics of other species with our own.  Wouldn't it be nice to regenerate lost members like crabs do or have the color-changing skin of a chameleon?  But when do we cease to be "made in the image of God"?  At what point do we lose our humanity?

We might make laws that would prevent genetic manipulation of humans.  Perhaps we could make "wiener cats" for those who don't want weiner dogs.  Maybe we could give cats tails that can drop off to prevent capture and maybe we could make exotic wigs and clothing items from these spare cat tails.  Maybe our pets should be able to talk.  Maybe our pets should be as smart as people.  Maybe some scientists will find ways around whatever laws we try to make.

Not every scientist has the best interests of humanity in mind when performing their research.  The "clone army" depicted in the Star Wars films is an example of a sort of slavery that could happen some day.  The film Blade Runner (1982), based upon Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968), by Philip K. Dick, depicts a world in which "replicants," basically bioengieered people, aren't necessarily designed to want to be slaves.  Bioengineering may create genetic circumstances where specialization forces people into their social roles.  Perhaps "mole people" will mine for diamonds and gold.  Perhaps cashiers at stores will literally be rooted to the floors where they work.

We may live to see thousands of "Barbie dolls" with Einstein's brain.  Maybe the military will try to make Daleks or those grasshopper soldiers mentioned in the Book of Revelation.  We may end up creating countless races of monsters.  Do we have the hubris to believe that we're ready for this?  Will pride or greed or fear or curiousity be our undoing?