One does not need to search around to find out that this world is seriously messed up, but sometimes some things really hit the spot. Sometime ago a sperm bank was making available sperm from Nobel laureates so all the (ambitious?, retarded?) women who aspire their child to be a genius would visit this bank.

Now there's a sperm bank that distributes sperm not from celebrities, but celebrity look-a-likes. Now this is retarded. I cannot believe that a women would go there but actually quite a few of them would like to get fertilised by a celebrity-look-a-likes' sperm.

I wand to bombard them and watch as rivers of celebrity look-a-like sperm will flood the place...

Just wait till genetic engineering embryos become economical. people will want kids with the genes of brad pitt or something.

That's in fact a pretty clever niche to exploit even though I'd be waiting for hyperspace travelers sperm if i was a woman

You should not mess around with mother nature like that. We have our mating rituals for very good reasons. Our mating rituals have developed over thousands of years and should not be played around with.

Cultures in certain parts of the world that have been doing arranged marriages for a long time are generally uglier than the rest of the world. This is what happens when you bypass the natural human mating rituals, you get sub par children.

I’m all for freedom, and if people are stupid enough to fall for this kind of thing, I say let them ruin their own line of decent by violating the laws of nature. Let them bypass the human mating ritual.

Look at what has happened to some plants that were messed with by humans for thousands of years, some of them can no longer reproduce on their own and now require humans to nurture them. They’ve lost their genetic strength.

I will teach my children to stay away from this kind of thing and follow the laws of nature. We have our mating rituals for a very good reason. It keeps our genetic line strong. Look what has happened to cultures that have arranged marriages for hundreds of years. They violate the mating rituals, and as a consequence their cultures a larger number of ugly people, and a larger number of birth defects.

Sorry, but this is just plain stupid. Subjective, ethnocentric.

I was just thinking that this may actually be an optimistic scenario. When genetic engineering comes to play, people may want their kids to have 5 penises on the forehead or have genes from jellyfish 'cause they want their kids to be jelly-like ans squeezy...

The problem is that I think that children are very special gifts and not a canvas for parents to paint as the please. I see genetically engineered children as a forceful act of a parent upon a non-consenting human and not much different from today's forceful acts of parents upon their children (YOU'LL BECOME A LAYER YOU FUCKING BRAT CUZ I WANT SO, SO YOU'D BETTER FORGET YOUR ARTISTIC PIPE DREAMS)

I am for genetic engineering technology but just to understand how it works so when in useful situations it can be applied. But I do not think genetic engineering should ever be used to try to tailor make people. It won't wind up good at all.

But since it may one day happen society will have to deal with it. Should it be viewed as freedom of the parent? But then could it also be viewed as a violation of freedom for an unborn child? Isn't abortion then too? Or is that different and if so why? Its a tough question. Personally though I want real children.

The only situation where I think it might be useful to apply is when embryos are almost garunteed to get a life threatening illness like cystic fibrosis or something. As long as the procedure is almost fool proof which will take a very long time to get the technology that good. But there needs to be a barrier. Otherwise people will think that if there kids are going to have slight chance of being fat is a life threatening illness and then I think there is the chance for serious unpredictable consequences to the gene pool.

Whatever anyone says... this is pathetic.

Children are supposed to be sacred individuals to their parents. Trying to build a child in the image of... THAT.. is pathetic.

I like the comparison with the abortion.

I am not totally against genetic engineering as it is a tool and just as almost any tool it can be used for good or bad purposes. In this respect, I feel disturbed by the celebrity look-a-like sperm idea because I sense a dichotomy. Genetically engineering your child so as to avoid some congenital detrimental disease or having an abortion for similar reasons is OK. There is a reasoning behind that (mental and physical well-being of the progeny) and the means are justified. But on the other hand, wanting your child to look just like brad pitt is too shallow to swallow.

I agree with that, but maybe pathetic is a bit harsh work. Sure every parent wishes to pass something of his personality to his children. Strictly directing the future and ideas of a child is horrible though


For me this also falls in the category of directing the ideas of a child to be an image of the parent.

I just hate the idea of celebrity worship. This is taking it to the next level.

Celebrity look-a-likes...
Everybody can look like everybody else, with the right clothes and haircut.

So wasting time to try to look like someone because you don't have a life of your own is apparently a genetic trait people want their children to have.

Can you get your money back if your little beyonce eats a little to much icecream and get's fat or if your little governator doesn't like hanging out in the gym?

It's totally absurd. It must be a joke or something.

How poetic, btw.

It might look like it's meant to have that undertone but I assure you it's not meant to and it is true. Just like inbreeding among humans is bad, arranged marriages also cause more birth defects.

Human beings have instinctual mechanisms based on smell, sight, etc., for ensuring that they are attracted to individuals that will better ensure the survival of their offspring. People instinctively select other people that are genetically compatible with them if left to select their mate on their own. When others interfere with that natural selection process, you degrade your gene pool.

It's called passing on knowledge. Just as my father did, his father did, his father, etc., etc., etc. This is how we keep our family strong. We teach our children. They teach their children, and the cycle goes on until the end of time.

My father taught me to stay away from this, and gave very good reasons for it, and I have listened to his advice and I see the dangers of it and so do my kids. I value my family and teach them to stay clear of this kind of danger.

If you don't protect your family from this kind of crap, you'll end up with a future family of inferior genetics.

Fortunately my children are intelligent enough to see the reasoning for this. If you guys want your children to fall victim to this kind of genetic crap, be my guest. I've thought my children well. I have nothing to worry about here. My kids would even tell you guys to stay away from this danger and could probably even explain the dangers better than I can. Especially my first daughter. She's already teaching science to other children and she's still just a kid herself. She's amazing.

I can't believe that others here do not see the huge danger here.

I think it's a proven fact that genetic diversity equates to better survival abilities..look at pure bred dogs compared to muts..pure breds always end up with all kinds of illnesses that owners have to constantly watch and give medicine for..this is a proven fact. Muts are cross breeds of many species and generally have better tolerancy to diseases that only one specific breed wont have..that's natural selection..

fractal enchantment, that's it exactly. That's a very good example. It's a scientific fact that human interference with natural selection has caused many genetic problems in animals, and plants and now we are doing it to ourselves!

Besides all mentioned above; a society needs genetic diversity. If everybody would start using these artificial gene-pools, it would at the end destroy our society.

There is a natural distribution of intelligence, creativity, physical strength, etc. amongst the population.
Every society needs this natural diversity to function properly.

You cannot have a healthy, functioning society with only G.I.joe's or einsteins. It just wouldn't work.

Society's are build around the large group of mediocre people. Well, ofcourse nobody wants mediocre children, but rather alpha-males and alpha-females. So from each individuals point of view it is understandable that people will seek for these things (although i think many people will dispute the idea of celebrity look-a-likes bringing the required leadership genes).

But here again, the famous prisoners dillemma aplies: If every individual seeks a larger piece of the cake then the rest, everybody ends up with a smaller piece.

Yea like when you beef up one trait of an organism you lose some other traits. So if all you breed for is muscle then the bones might have problems dealing with all that muscle etc.

But artificial selection is essential for our survival. Most food crops would be inedible without artificial selection.

Anyway I think genetic diversity is key. It makes people of all shapes sizes and colors and I like that. Not just from a survival of the species perspective but there is so much beauty in the human form. There is no perfect person. Saving lives is one thing vanity is another.

And this genetic diversity is exactly what's at stake when these frankensteins start there dubious genetic workshops.

Normally these kind of doomscenarios spring from the minds of hollywood screenwriters, but now in hollywood it seems they actually want to live out these epic end-of-the-world blockbuster fantasies.

Once you start frankensteining on people, there are no taboo's left anymore end things can only get worse.