If we have the ability to screen embryos to determine which ones are likely to have the least health problems, and to live as fulfilling and successful a life of possible, do we not then have a moral imperative to do this?
Supposing it were free: to choose NOT to do it, would be to say, "I don't care if I bring avoidable pain and suffering into the world."
Every time I talk to my gf about this we get to the “where do we draw the line” question. You can keep expanding the list of filters until you have people with money taking off not only in opportunity but now also genetically.
Also, lets not forget the key concept of counter-party risk.
What assurances and real resolutions do you have that what they market is actually true; and the baby your gf is carrying isn't in fact a mini-musk with no related DNA from you. Like a cuckoo bird.
Interestingly the term cuckold, referring to a man whose wife was unfaithful, originates from the Cuckoo bird, where the bird is tricked into raising children biologically not their own; as happens with brood parasitism.
These advances bring into question long-term fitness and survivability. We know mono-cultures die out quite easily.
Before long we might have a "Surface" event, like what happened in that TV show. There are things that cannot be undone, and there are blind people more than willing to ensure those things are full steam ahead.
Even absent ethical or practical risks, it seems presumptuous to assume that we know what direction our evolution should take. The inferior beings that need improvement are the same beings that will do the improving? That would imply an implausible level of knowledge about the future and what characteristics will be desirable.
> That would imply an implausible level of knowledge about the future and what characteristics will be desirable.
Why?
The default is evolution doing the same thing by randomly mutating each of us a little bit and seeing what sticks. It also doesn't have a plan, or insight into the future conditions we might encounter or create.