Genetic Altering

It's the womans kid, its her choice. People put in things from Beethoven so they have mad piano skills.

However, these things rarely work. So maybe this isn't a big deal?!

 

I wouldn't do it personally. I don't know if I neccessarily concider it immoral, but I'd rather have my children be whatever they're going to be rather than try and stack the cards and get the "perfect child". Besides which, that sort of thing seems like it could go wrong really easily and cause more harm than good.

 

I don't know if I would elect to do it, but you have to admit it's kind of a cool thought.

 

I don't see how this differs from Eugenics. Eugenics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Not to mention, I've seen Gattaca. Even though it's fiction, it's a pretty convincing piece.

 

Eh. In 100,000 some-odd years, the Y-chormosone will be gone, so you won't have to worry about that anymore.

 

Personally, I want one of each. I don't want to be stuck with a pack of boys or a pack of girls. So I suppose, if I could pick anything, picking gender would be the only thing I would pick. But even so, I'd rather not do that. If I get all girls or all boys, it's no big deal. They're my children, and I'd love them all, no matter their gender or what they look like. Even if I had the option, I probably wouldn't use it.

 

Well the kid should be what you wants too be, I mean the parents can give the kid advace, but I wouldnt tell them to be, I would let them pick by there self.

 

Actually the so-called 'flawed' Y-chromosome is probably here to stay, thanks to some MIT research in...I think...2003? Very recent stuff.

It turns out that scientists believed the Y-chromosome was 'destined to fail' and keep shrinking in size until males (and effectively the human species) would die out entirely (barring some miraculous adaptation on the female side).

It's kind of like this; It's quite well known that the 45th and 46th chromosomes are 'large' X chromosomes in females (which can hold 1500 or so genes), while the 46th in males is a 'miniscule' Y (which can only hold a meager 80 or so genes).

During conception, if one of the X-chromosomes is problematic (damaged, etc.), the egg essentially 'reads off' of the other X-chromosome, repairing any damaged area. A female would need two of the same faulty genes to have irrepairable damage. A male on the other hand, at first glance, can't seem to repair itself at all. There's no extra X chromosome to read off of, so they only need one faulty gene to exhibit the disorder.

(You might know some other terminology such as 'x-linked' or 'carrier' and this is my attempt at explaining these in layman's terms).

However....recent findings at MIT say that the Y-chromosome is actually palindromic (ie. reads the same forwards and backwards like the word 'level'). So the Y chromosome actually possesses an ability that even the X chromosome doesn't: It can repair itself without referencing another chromosome. (It essentially just reads the code backward)

This surprising property of the Y chromosome gives scientists reason to believe that it won't actually die off as previously expected.

 

Y Chromosome Not Going Extinct, Study Says | LiveScience

2005 article about what Mike said.

Heredity - The longevity of Y chromosomes: The Human Y chromosome is not dead (yet)

Here's an article that goes with what I said, that has sources from 2006.

 

Well I'm all for it, honestly this is like the stem-cell thing, its a good thing for everybody, specifically because you can CHOOSE to do it, so you don't have to its all free will.

 

I don't see anything wrong with it. Would I do it? Probably not. But hey if that's what someone wants, go for it. Lol.

 

I'm confused....your 2nd source says that there's is hope in maintaining the Y-chromosome? That's agreeing with my source, even though it doesn't cite it directly. Perhaps I've misunderstood the article (I read it very quickly).

At any rate, I'd like to point out that dating of research doesn't mean anything unless the same specific point is addressed (ie. one year something is proposed, the next it is disproved). Your second article had no reference to the palindromic nature of the Y-chromosome, so even if it's more recent, it doesn't make it any more or less valid. It just gives more things that must be taken into account.

I guess to give an example, you may be familiar with Newtonian Mechanics vs. Relativistic Mechanics (one is a 'more precise' version of the other, dealing with very high velocities). Relativistic Mechanics is the more precise of the two (Newtonian mechanics agrees with it in the limiting case of small velocities).

I could go out right now, it's 2008, and go measure an experiment at low velocities and find that Newtonian physics describes it perfectly, allegedly 'beating out' other methods of physics (even though they would describe it perfectly as well).

I hope that made sense, reading back on it it sounds kind of nonsensical. Ah well.

 

It does make sense.

And my article -- in a way -- does agree with what you say. It says that while there's a chance that the Y-chromosome won't disappear, it most likely will.

 

That's kind of a silly article then isn't it? Instead of putting forth evidence to support its claim, it did the exact opposite.

It still didn't address (/refute) the palindromic nature of the Y-chromosome, so it's apples and oranges.

 

I'm new to the subject but um, I think it's screwed up but hell it's the woman's choice

 

Its BOTH parents' choice. I would be incredibly angry if my wife did something like this without my input.

 

Personally I think that its up to the parents. If they fell that they don't want to be happy with what they made and feel the need to change it before ever seeing it. Then more power to them. But I will not be doing this anytime soon.