Ethical Quandaries of Designing Our Body and of the Children

Our 2021 Design-A-Baby survey yielded the following characteristics of a person as indicated by a majority of you:
Sex: Male (44%)Hair Color: Black (25%)Hair Texture: Straight (26%)Eye Color: Any (26%)Race: Any (29%)Height: 5’-10” to 6’-1” (43%)IQ: 121-130 (20%)Memory: Excellent (49%)Athletic Ability: Excellent (43%)Weight: Average (81%)Disease Carrier: None (80%)Beauty: Somewhat attractive (35%)Empathy: Very empathetic (35%)Creativity: Very creative (43%)
What an interesting person we have collectively developed!
As you well know, we now have the technology for you to choose many of the survey characteristics in your future child, and this ability to choose poses some ethical questions. Of course, we all want the best for our own child. However, as we move into a more collective situation, we need to consider how the consequences of majority choices for children might change who we are as a species.
In the film FIXED, you were introduced to the dilemma of living in a culture in which the “science-fiction of human enhancement” has become almost a way of life, from prenatal genetic screening to bionic body parts. In the Smithsonian online exhibit about disability artifacts in the U.S., we see the ways that we have evolved our understanding of disability and the human body through artifacts. Last week, Juan Enriquez asked us if it is ethical to evolve the human body. In Olivia Arthur’s photographs, we see the blurring of the body with what we’ve made to enhance the body. These videos suggest that the concept of disability ‘as we know it’ could cease to exist in the future. This leads us to this week’s discussion question set: 
What lessons do you think we should learn from history when thinking about emerging enhancement technologies and reproductive technologies? What are some of the possible consequences (both positive and negative) of being able to design our bodies and the bodies of our children?What ethical quandaries do these technologies pose? 
Limit your response to less than 300 words.
This week’s question set addresses big issues that will impact our lives. 
Most likely, you will need to do a bit of research to craft a thoughtful response. Look at: 1) the materials assigned for the week, 2) the supplemental materials, or 3) other external sources. When incorporating your research into your response, cite your sources.
Here are a few prompts to help you to consider these questions:
Pull up your knowledge of history. Which groups focused on enhancing or perfecting the human body? What were the motivations for doing this? What were the consequences, intended and unintended?Which areas of genetic alteration in humans would benefit society as a whole? What are some of the possible dangers of genetic alteration? Do you think access and no access to genetic editing could create classes of individuals defined by the quality of their engineered genome? How does the concept of disability change if we are capable of gene editing? 
In terms of ethics, are there situations involving genome editing that are unacceptable? Describe a few. What are the safety issues surrounding genetic alteration? How are equity and justice issues connected to the gene-edited, designed human body?