Last weeks question , this weeks question

[Plane]

QUESTION OF THE WEEK
Last week's question asked if we should be able to "design" our
children through genetic technology that lets parents choose not only
the sex of the child, but also specific traits. Seventy-five percent of
you said we should not be able to design our kids, while 25 percent
said we should. Here's more of what you had to say:

"Natural selection and the randomness inherent in procreation is
essential to having a robust and thriving species. There is no way to
anticipate what the impact of such design might have on an inherently
random system until it is too late." M. Plishka

"What is amazing about this technology is the ability to design your
child to be free of genetic defects. Who can honestly claim to want
to have a deformed or diseased child when it is possible, through
technology, to have a healthy one? Yes, most certainly, let us design
our children. Let us make genetic defects a horror of the distant past.
D. Wisehart

"Coercion of complex systems, without adequate understanding, often
results in unintended and, all too frequently, disastrous consequences.
We may be smart enough to manipulate the genes of our children and pick
our children's characteristics, but I doubt we are wise enough."
G. Dahlvig

This week's question concerns a California Supreme Court ruling that
Internet publishers such as Google and AOL cannot be held liable if
they post defamatory comments written by others. Those who claim
defamation can only sue the source of the comments, not the publishers.

Those who oppose the ruling claim that Internet service providers and
search engine companies should be held responsible for what's posted on
their sites. What do you think? Should Internet publishers be held
liable for the content on their sites? Submit your answer at:
http://link.abpi.net/l.php?20061127A13

[Michael Tee]

I think there should be limits.  You should be able to design a kid to rule out hereditary disease, deformity, etc.  Subject to basic parameters you should not be able to design for sex, looks, height, hair colour, eye colour . . . up to now, what a human being is has been defined by Mother Nature.  Some big mistakes were made by Mother Nature and these should be avoided if possible, but the basic design, unless clearly likely to cause enormous pain and suffering, should be left to Mother Nature, not to man.

[Brassmask]

I think there should be limits.  You should be able to design a kid to rule out hereditary disease, deformity, etc.  Subject to basic parameters you should not be able to design for sex, looks, height, hair colour, eye colour . . . up to now, what a human being is has been defined by Mother Nature.  Some big mistakes were made by Mother Nature and these should be avoided if possible, but the basic design, unless clearly likely to cause enormous pain and suffering, should be left to Mother Nature, not to man.

I sort of concur; however, once you let that out of the bottle there's no stuffing it back in.  Once we design to erase disease, we'll wind up erasing brown eyes.

[Plane]

   In India and in China it has been possible for a few years now to use a sonogram to examine a fetus and then use an abortion to prevent wasteing time on a sub-optimal individual.

    A girl shortage is comeing up .

[Michael Tee]

Brass - - I think only massive governmental interference in our personal lives (which already exists in so many areas that we won't even notice it) would be necessary to keep the child-designers restricted to deformities and congenital disease and out of the eye-colour business.

plane - - I was going to comment on the boy-girl divide, which for sure in China, India and similar places would be sure to cause a girl shortage.  I wonder how you feel about government regulation of the child-design business to avoid this sort of thing.

[kimba1]

possible effect
sex- too many males will be born
height- if too tall their has been cases of back problem.
hair color-possible tie-in to baldness
increase immune system may cause other problems

i think a whole redeisgn of the human template maybe required for this too work

[Plane]

plane - - I was going to comment on the boy-girl divide, which for sure in China, India and similar places would be sure to cause a girl shortage.  I wonder how you feel about government regulation of the child-design business to avoid this sort of thing.

[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]
I think a severe wisdom shortage is already biting the human race.
[][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][][]

China, the world’s most populous nation, is facing a serious shortage of women. Official statistics show that in 2002, for every 100 newborn girls, there were 117 boys born. If this trend continues, China will have up to 40 million more men than women by 2020.
Demographic experts warn that the shortage of women in China will pose serious problems for the country if the trend is not halted. The surplus of men may trigger crimes as rape, prostitution, the abduction of women and mercenary marriages. They also emphasise that the current trend of aborting girls can be physically and emotionally stressful for women.
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=2169

[Plane]

 On the other hand....
 
On Monday, young women at the Family Planning Youth Centre, a non-governmental clinic for northwest Moscow, said they liked the sound of more money, but suggested that Mr Putin has no concept of their lives. "A child is not an easy project, and in this world a woman is expected to get an education, find a job, and make a career," says Svetlana Romanicheva, a student who says she won't consider babies for at least five years. She hopes to have one child, but says a second would depend on her life "working out very well." As for Putin's offer, she says "it won't change anything."


Shrinking population


Russia's birthrate, falling for decades, has plunged in post-Soviet times, to just 1.17 in 2004 from 2.08 babies per woman in 1990 - far below the 2.4 children required to maintain the population - according to the Federal State Statistics Service. The average rate from 2000-05 in the US, by contrast, was 2.0, according to UN figures, while Mexico, for example, weighed in at 2.4 and Italy at 1.3.

http://www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=2770

[kimba1]

Russia's birthrate, falling for decades

judging from the russians I know it`s more like the women will not have anything to do with men there.
the men there have a slight problem dealing with educated females.
note the business of mailorder birides there.

[Plane]

I hear that the North Pole is moveing about 25 miles a year twards Russia.

Women are being killed before birth in China and India .

Women are being bought by higher bidders in the west and are leaveing Russia.

Could the dearth of Women in the east be disturbing the Earths magnetic feild?

[kimba1]

the internet compaies should not held liable.
but if they were informed such posting exist on thier site.
then it would be their responsibility to remove it for legal reason.
say a post about attacking a certain group.
if a hostsite knew it exist and did not remove it and somebody got injured.
than they would be liable.
it brings the question if the host closed it down ,would the incident happen?
host should not be blamed for things not known on that situation

[Plane]

Prior censorship?


Whose responsibility is ti to determine what is and isn't liabelous?


It would be impossible for all of the net to be read by responsible people .

[kimba1]

I`m not saying they should monitor everything going on in their site.
but put notices of what is approved and option for people to informed the webmaster of something going on
which i thought pretty much every forum has this option.
here we just e-mail bt if somethings goes awry.