Well seeing as the Bible states God is the creator of all things, that give me pretty good grounds to say we are not the entities who have control over life in this way.

We have our place in the grand scheme and creator/controller of life is not on our CV. Or at least is shouldn't be.

If God wants to 'clone' as Fraz puts it, that's up to Him. The day we can be put on the same terms as the Boss is the day I'll agree with all this. :)

Just think what we could of had for an 'Arm and a Leg'!:)

thats utter stupidity just because we kill others does that mean its right in my mind no or is that natural progression ?

The thing is, whether it's "right" or not, it's possible, and we are going to have to learn to deal with it. I would much rather see genetic modification done responsibly than see it run rampant because it's driven underground. This is one of the many instances where prohibition just won't work.

And, in case you're worrying about super beings taking over, forget it. Being able to do some small degree of genetic modification is the present state of affairs; being able to do it to a greater extent than removing genes for diseases or selecting sex: i.e. trying to produce greater intelligence, athleticism, beauty or anything like that is still no nearer. They would involve combinations of genetic material that we're not going to be able to work out for a long time yet, let alone execute them correctly.

And, to get back to my original point, I think it's much better we learn to deal with them at this early stage than bury our heads in the sand until we have real genetic manipulation to deal with and no idea how to.

God gave us freedom, Most people dont believe in god anyhow... Who cares?

Surely this will only bring the family closer together, More love.. and overall a better thing! Life's there to be enjoyed, we dont last long, we might as well enjoy it whilst we can imo.

Fraz, your not with the O.U. by any chance are you?

Russ .. little hint .. your mother is not the virgin Mary ;)

so what if some people dont believe in god i agree we should be happy but i thought when having children you would be happy to have a child rather then custom produced baby and the big possibility of it dyng at anytime...............

The only problem I can foresee is Asian family's. Its well known that allot off them prefer son's as they value them more. This of course is wrong but on the other side their are family's which say have three girl's and just wont a son or vice versa and I don't see a problem with that

Havnt really read the whole thread.. The baby should lead a complete normal life.. Just like conceiving naturally, there's no health implications.

if this is a 'genetic' modification which i think its then there are risks significant ones at that of future problems

Its not really altering genetics, Its Just Choosing the XX XY chromasomes, and using IVF treatment to implant them in the egg.

So you don't even believe in 'mother nature' or anything like that?

Well of course there's something that created us.. and the universe.. But I dont see how this relates to the thread tbh.. Lifes' there for the taking, there's no point worrying about something supernatural.

I'll use my pre-christian beliefs here to help with my point.....

In the view of a non-christian, life must have been created by a 'mother-nature'. 'She' continues to oversee life, and if you subscribe to the idea of 'evolution' then surely you must agree that she controls that, thus ensuring species evolve the right way. 'She' has laid down strict rules governing life, such as elephants only give birth to baby elephants, and canines give birth to puppies etc.

So anything which 'changes' this natural process is going to be encroaching in uncharted land. This can only be described as foolish behaviour IMO.

Humans are slaves to this process, NOT the other way around.