"Forced speciation" is not the same as wiping out entire populations of unenhanced people. By forced, I mean forcing evolution along the path of speciation. Such a process would in effect create a new post human species out of the enhanced who chose to do so.
Concerning your back of the envelope statistics, let's say you're right and 5 abortions for every 1,000 births are the result of terminating a defective fetus. While this figure sounds small, so are the percentages of birth defects. According to the CDC website you pointed out, around 3 percent of births result in birth defects of one kind or another (from mild to fatal) in the USA every year.. The most serious types are fairly rare, with Down Syndrome affecting around 1/800 pregnancies and Spina Bifida affecting around 1/1,000 pregnancies. These numbers fall well within your calculations. Five abortions per 1,000 births to terminate defective pregnancies is in fact a major trend. The fact that it is now fairly standard for mothers to meet with a genetic counselor to help them with decisions regarding a troubled pregnancy is only a sign of things to come as genetic screening technology improves.
As for costs, they'll eventually come down. It always does for new technologies.
Off Topic » in reply to re: "This idea may bother some people, but I'm not one of them."
You're misreading what I said.
The whole thread (34 posts)
- A good read.
- So's this
- Tread carefully
- re: My two cents
- Too spooky for me
- Finally men discover a way to make themselves redundant.
- You wrote: "I've heard tell that the Y chromosome is gradually self-destructing anyway." I read the same nonsense.