Is engineering a ‘super’ human being a good idea?

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According to reports in The Wall Street Journal , billionaires in Silicon Valley are trying to expand the frontiers of genetic engineering in the eternal quest to create genetically engineered human beings with enhanced intelligence and traits preferred in different cultures.

Editing genes in sperm, eggs and embryos is currently banned in the United States. The current effort by Preventive, a Silicon Valley startup, involves a couple with a genetic abnormality who want to participate in producing a genetically engineered embryo.

Scientists are currently employing technologies for treating genetic birth defects (including edited and inserted DNA after birth, but not before birth).

In fact, scientists and medical ethicists have been calling “for a global moratorium un