Modern Day Eugenics Not As Far Off As We MIght Think

Eugenics as it was in 20th century no longer exists. The abhorrent practices and pseudoscience of the Nazi's has been discarded. Thanks to new technology however, there seems to be a possibility that Eugenics could make a comeback - this time backed by science. This article explores the world of genetic engineering, and it's far reaching implications.
Gene Therapy has been around, albeit only experimentally, since the 1990's, and with the rate things are progressing, it seams likely that one day we will be able to design a human being down to the very last nucleotide. Human genetic engineering can be divided into two categories: negative engineering, which refersto the correction of genetic disorders, and positive engineering, the enhancement of an individual’s genetic characteristics.
Most people would agree that getting rid of fatal genetic diseases, such as Huntington's disease, is not a bad thing, but what about disorders such as Diabetes, or Down's Syndrome?
This also brings up the controversial idea of so called "designer babies." While it is not yet medically possible, it may in the future be easy to design a baby, via in vitro fertilization, to have specific characteristics, such as eye color, height, or even sex.
"With the advent of revolutionary reproductive and genetic technologies, humans have begun to acquire the ability to directly, and perhaps permanently, shape our evolutionary destiny. There are many arguments that can be made in favor of the ability to permanently cure genetic disease in future progeny. Fewer arguments can be made in favor of permanently “improving” the genetic traits of future progeny, but a small yet influential group of scientists does advocate for them. In 1994, Sir Walter Bodmer, former president of the Europe-based Human Genome Organization famously proclaimed, “Would it really be so bad, if we added genes for height to small people, or for hair to the bald, or good eyesight to the myopic? Probably not.” But in response to whether we should add genes for intelligence or athleticism? “Just where we get off the slippery slope is therefore a matter for society to choose…we have plenty of time to debate the issues and resolve them.”