Originally Posted by a25052

In the March issue of Discovery there is a short article about the IGF2R gene.The gene facililitates the fast release of neurotransmitters, chemicals that pass impulses from cell to cell in the brain. After genetically engineering mice to have only one copy they found that they are slower than the other mice at learning a maze. So they tested 300 human subjects. They found that some males carrying a particular variant of the gene had lower IQs overall. Now it turns out that the variant gene doesn't exist in the animal kingdom. In other words, natural selection has apparently rooted out offspring with the varient gene. Only man harbors the variant gene.

To me this makes sense, since a dumb animal is quickly killed off by preditors, but humans have become more protective of all other humans so the mutant gene is allowed to be propagated in the general population.

The question is, "Should science be allowed to test for the mutant gene and attempt to change it in humans before they become adults or should we do nothing and allow it to propagate randomly?"

These are the kind of questions the human race needs to start discussing as research continues. Should mankind start on a trajectory to make all human life "whole" ridding people of genes that cause diseases and infusing genes that will make them brighter or should we allow the human race to eventually dumb down?