Gattaca could be the world of tomorrow. A movie where parents design their babies to be successful in life thanks to genetic manipulation and are frowned upon if they do not may be the close future for humanity.

In fact, thanks to tools like  CRISPR/Cas9, editing genes of an embryo is not science fiction anymore. CRISPR/Cas9 has been developed in five years, and acts like scissors so precise that they are able to snip DNA and to fix bad mutations responsible of diseases.

Despite the widespread fear to see a new class of genetically enhanced people appear, it’s very likely that, in few years, gene editing will become normal, and that legal restrictions will fall. But, will the parents have the obligation to enhance their baby, editing his genes?

Julian Savulescu, an ethicist at the University of Oxford, says that parents are morally obligated to take care of their children.  And if one day, a technique which could make their children resistant to serious illness does exist, then they have to use it.

He even compares the CRISPR to drug prescribed to children with a lack of concentration, saying that we have to use CRISPR as we do to provide this drugs, or even education. The bioethicist Ronald Green rejected this idea. For him, we do not have to enhance something other than children’s health.

He adds that the success and the happiness depend on many factors and genes. We have not determined all these factors, and many are associated to discrimination, this means edit genes responsible of dark skin or example.

Another problem is that this could increase inequalities between poor and rich people, gene editing require in vitro fertilization, which is expensive. However, some measures could correct these disparities, like heath care.

This technique could also have an impact on family dynamics, if a child is not like his parents expected. Nevertheless, for Savulescu, CRISPR does not have to be banned for that.