Our Biotech Future An exchange

ENABLING parents to genetically enhance their children is not going to be as easy as some of us might hope, nor will it happen as soon as we might wish, but Dinesh D’Souza is right when he claims in his article “Staying Human” (Jan. 22) that one day it will be possible. This prospect frightens him. Why?

First, let’s note that D’Souza is not against using genetic technology to cure genetic diseases, or using germline interventions to eliminate genetic diseases in future generations, or even using human cloning to overcome infertility; what he opposes is the use of “enhancement technologies to shape the destiny of others, and especially their children.” D’Souza denounces such parents as “totalitarians” engaging in “despotism” and “tyranny.”

ENABLING parents to genetically enhance their children is not going to be as easy as some of us might hope, nor will it happen as soon as we might wish, but Dinesh D’Souza is right when he claims in his article “Staying Human” (Jan. 22) that one day it will be possible. This prospect frightens him. Why?

First, let’s note that D’Souza is not against using genetic technology to cure genetic diseases, or using germline interventions to eliminate genetic diseases in future generations, or even using human cloning to overcome infertility; what he opposes is the use of “enhancement technologies to shape the destiny of others, and especially their children.” D’Souza denounces such parents as “totalitarians” engaging in “despotism” and “tyranny.”