aside from that though like literally why not, genetically engineer every kid, supe up our fuckin’ species, cast off the yoke of natural selection driven evolution once and for all
Massive amount of legwork for nebulous and poorly understood gains. We have a very limited understanding of our genetic make-up and an even more limited understanding of the consequences of direct manipulation. Yes, there's some low-hanging fruit you could aim for (Down's Syndrome is comparatively easy to spot, for instance). But for heart defects, at the stage of an embryo? Nevermind something we can't even properly quantify, like cognitive capacity. We'd just be doing guess-and-test, and producing a generation of people with shit like Progeria and weird new cancers while we ironed out our technique.
And all for... what exactly? We don't even really know what we're aiming for or how much genetic manipulation will impact lifetime outcomes.
Massive amount of legwork for nebulous and poorly understood gains. We have a very limited understanding of our genetic make-up and an even more limited understanding of the consequences of direct manipulation. Yes, there's some low-hanging fruit you could aim for (Down's Syndrome is comparatively easy to spot, for instance). But for heart defects, at the stage of an embryo? Nevermind something we can't even properly quantify, like cognitive capacity. We'd just be doing guess-and-test, and producing a generation of people with shit like Progeria and weird new cancers while we ironed out our technique.
And all for... what exactly? We don't even really know what we're aiming for or how much genetic manipulation will impact lifetime outcomes.