The Murky Next Stage in Human Evolution – The Wall Street Journal

Sept. 7, 2021 3:03 pm ET

H.G. Wellss fictional vision of human evolution in The Time Machine (1895) is a bifurcation of our species 800,000 years in the future. Wells was much more accurate about the direction of our evolution than about the timeline. In Imagine a Future Without Sex (op-ed, Sept. 1), James Lee explains how current reproductive technology can be used to screen embryos for higher intelligence prior to in-vitro fertilization.

Human life becomes more and more a commodity. The possibilities are humbling: screen embryos for low intelligence to provide docile labor, screen for aggression to supply soldiers, screen for universal organ donors. Mr. Lees theme can be extended: Why not produce perfect surrogate mothers? Product lines of specialty humans could then be produced in factories full of such surrogate mothers. No need to bother with sex, pregnancy and childbirth; order your child from a catalog. There is a point here: As we start to design humans, we have almost no idea of the consequences. The potential for tragedy by far outweighs that of anything else we have done, including making nuclear weapons.

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The Murky Next Stage in Human Evolution - The Wall Street Journal