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Ah, yes. The Frankenstein
approach to dating: “It’s alive! It’s ALIVE!”
Well, first of all,
define “perfect”. Everybody is looking for something
different, and beauty is always in the eye of the beholder
(regardless of what all those fashion magazines would have
you believe). And even if we created the so-called “perfect”
mate, our needs change over time – so what is perfect
one year may not seem so perfect the next…
But aside from
the obvious concerns about changing people into “perfect”
matches for ourselves, we just aren’t technically able
to alter genes to do exactly what we want. Plus, what genes
would we change? We don’t yet know if there is a gene
for cuddling, and if it exists, where is it in the genome?
If we go in and
start changing genes, we may inadvertently change something
that we liked. For example, changing a gene to ensure that
your boyfriend always brings you flowers might for some reason
also cause him to, say, lose his sense of smell – which
means that the flowers he brings you might be stinkweed. Our
genes have many uses and changing things may remove more than
we expected.
Another issue is,
when do you make the changes? It seems plain wrong to genetically
manipulate small children for our own selfish purposes. So
does that mean it is ok to do it to other adults? But ethics
aside, even if we did it in adults, would it even make a difference?
Adults have established behaviour patterns that may over-ride
any genetic changes done.
Realistically speaking,
there is no such thing as “perfect”. Everyone
has their good points and bad points – and in order
to make a relationship work, you have to accept both.
Want
to Learn More?
Check out our series
on Genetic Screening:
Glossary
term:
July 2007
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