GENETIC ENHANCEMENT IS ALREADY HERE...

Fish engineered to glow in the dark have been developed and marketed as pets.

In a practice sometimes called pharming, several mammalian species (cattle, sheep, and goats) have been genetically engineered to produce commercially useful human proteins in their milk.

Efforts are underway to produce transgenic pigs as a source of organ transplants, transgenic fish for food, and transgenic livestock that resist animal diseases.

[See more information at GeneticsAndSociety.org.]

"DIRECTED EVOLUTION"

From Scientific American, January 2009:

"We have directed the evolution of so many animal and plant species. Why not direct our own? Why wait for natural selection to do the job when we can do it faster and in ways beneficial to ourselves? … Over time, elaborate screening for genetic makeup may become commonplace, and people will be offered drugs based on the results.

"The next step will be to actually change people's genes…

…The pressure to change genes will probably come from parents wanting to guarantee their child is a boy or a girl; to endow their children with beauty, intelligence, musical talent or a sweet nature; or to try to ensure that they are not helplessly disposed to become mean-spirited, depressed, hyperactive or even criminal. The motives are there, and they are very strong. Just as the push by parents to genetically enhance their children could be socially irresistible…"

- Scientific American, January 2009

... and it's being used on humans

It's called pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.

Pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is the technological basis for a d-1 human (circa 2030).   The technology is already in place and being used on humans for select purposes.

What it is: PGD involves an embryo "biopsy" and genetic analysis of a single cell. Embryos destined to be affected with an unwanted condition are discarded or frozen while embryos free of the trait are selected for transfer to a woman's uterus.

How much is it used: "In 2000, geneticist Ricki Lewis estimated that PGD was offered in more than 50 centers around the world for more than 100 genetic conditions"

Benefits: "The obvious advantage of PGD for some at-risk couples is the ability to start a pregnancy without the prospect of a termination decision four to five months down the road.

Key diseases screened: "Diseases that can be screened for today include cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease, Huntington's disease, and a host of other devastating ailments"

Current ethical standards: "Using PGD to screen against these diseases is relatively uncontroversial in the United States, because there is no regulation of fertility treatment. In the UK, the situation is somewhat different. A government body, the Human Fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA), was established in 1991 and monitors all labs providing fertility treatments and PGD. It also licenses and monitors all embryo research.

"In the UK, it is legal to screen in vitro fertilized (IVF) embryos for the presence of a disease gene and to implant only embryos that are healthy."

Sources:  

American Medical Association                                                               

Joseph McPhee in the Science Creative Quarterly, 2003