Eugenics/Designer-babies... is the concept really that bad?

[Astonished]

There are all kinds of people who continuously surprise us and overcome the odds. Who are we to decide for someone else that they shouldn't live because we assume their life will be nothing but a string of pointless suffering? Nonetheless, purposely killing a child for any reason seems absolutely heinous to me, but that's just me I guess.....

CL, please don't take this the wrong way, but what you are saying reminds me of mother Teresa. Forcing someone to suffer is much more heinous in my opinion than letting them go in peace. What you imagine the ideal solution to be, I guess, would be to let each individual decide their own fate and I agree that should be the case but not everyone is capable of even making that decision, and even if I take the case where they are capable of it, choosing to live on in suffering is the only option they really have. Just google a bit and you'll see there are so many children around the world who are literally begging the justice system to let them die, yet they are forced to live on in agony because in an already over-populated planet, somehow their life is just too precious. Parents all over the world already make life changing decisions for their children without bothering about consent, from genital mutilation to avoiding vaccinations, from staying away from proper education to the choice of marriage and life partner.... yet somehow helping that child out of lifelong suffering is going too far?

I am not advocating children to be murdered on a parent's whim, what I would rather prefer is we progress to a point where we won't even need to consider this kind of thing, and I believe we can get there through genetic engineering, but till we do get to that point, we shouldn't force someone to suffer just cause we are too afraid.

Damn, I wish I had thought to say that instead. Good one.