The human rights perspective.

• Author: Isasi, Rosario
• Position: The Risks of the Rush - Diversity of human race - Brief Article

Genetic engineering could be used to "enhance" human beings, to make them healthier, smarter, more athletic and attractive--and probably also taller, thinner, and lighter-skinned. Advocates enthusiastically champion a disease- and suffering-free human being, perhaps even an immortal one. But in this scenario, markets will supersede human rights, supply and demand will determine the value of each person, and economics will dictate which traits should be adopted.

Conditioning lives by manipulating individuals' genes for the sake of parental ambition contradicts the very notion of autonomy. Genetic engineering also assaults human dignity and universal human rights and runs counter to democratic...