Genetic decadence

Genetic research is rapidly progressing into the genetic basis of complex traits like intelligence and a gene has been identified for criminal behaviour in one family. Once the decision to have IVF is made, PGD has few ‘costs’ to couples, and people would be more inclined to use it to select less serious medical traits, such as a lower risk of developing Alzheimer Disease, or even for non‐medical traits. PGD has already been used to select embryos of a desired gender in the absence of any history of sex‐linked genetic disease.

The question to challenge yourself with is whether reversing the current decline in the Flynn effect by using extremely tightly regulated genetic modifications to improve intelligence across the board is a bad thing, especially when we might be getting to a point where it becomes unavoidable that some people will be able to buy a genetic advantage.

The quote, by the way, is from 2004.