Engineering Ourselves

The Problem
In his article entitled “Tweaking the Genetics of Behavior,” Dean Hamer provides a detailed account of a couple, Syd and Kayla, in their journey to genetically engineer a child. The article says, “Because Syd and Kayla were both women, they were going to clone a baby...” (Hamer, 62). In their quest to structure a near-perfect child, they take several factors into consideration. These factors include characteristics such as features and build, intelligence, personality traits and temperament (i.e. altruism and happiness), and aversion from mental illness and alcoholism. Although, ideally, to genetically structure a child with both positive predispositions to certain behaviors and aversions to negative actions, ensures some level of comfort, it does not fully address the ethical ramifications and social backlash of such a practice.
The Debate
Hamer says that, “Kayla knew that despite her choice of genes, a good home and the best education, a lot w...