It's largely made dodgy territory because of the society we live in. The technology will have a hefty price tag and the cutting edge advancements will be kept for the very rich.
Superficially, the ability to - for instance - correct life threatening or shortening conditions such as CF or severe arthiritus in the womb could be very beneficial. We don't need to stray into the more morally dubious areas such as severe global learning delay or whatever to find a whole host of illnesses and conditions that make so many people's lives shorter and more miserable. Imagine if you could remove susceptibility to childhood leukemia, or effectively eradicate Cystic Fibrosis. That would, in the right society be a massive step forward.
Trouble is that it won't be accessable for most of the world and even in rich countries only the upper levels of society will have the resources to access it. Then there are other implications. Do you think for a second billionaires would hesitate to tweak their kids' genetics to add another few decades - hell a few centuries to their life expectancy if it were possible - and it might well be a few decades into pumping serious levels of funding and research into it. Make them stronger, taller, whatever? Of course they wouldn't. This would just serve to massively widen the gulf between the working class and the ruling class as does damn near every bit of technology we develop under capitalism.
It's largely made dodgy territory because of the society we live in. The technology will have a hefty price tag and the cutting edge advancements will be kept for the very rich.
Superficially, the ability to - for instance - correct life threatening or shortening conditions such as CF or severe arthiritus in the womb could be very beneficial. We don't need to stray into the more morally dubious areas such as severe global learning delay or whatever to find a whole host of illnesses and conditions that make so many people's lives shorter and more miserable. Imagine if you could remove susceptibility to childhood leukemia, or effectively eradicate Cystic Fibrosis. That would, in the right society be a massive step forward.
Trouble is that it won't be accessable for most of the world and even in rich countries only the upper levels of society will have the resources to access it. Then there are other implications. Do you think for a second billionaires would hesitate to tweak their kids' genetics to add another few decades - hell a few centuries to their life expectancy if it were possible - and it might well be a few decades into pumping serious levels of funding and research into it. Make them stronger, taller, whatever? Of course they wouldn't. This would just serve to massively widen the gulf between the working class and the ruling class as does damn near every bit of technology we develop under capitalism.