The story from the movie Gattaca, where parents can have babies with the best chance to be successful in life, thanks to genetics manipulation, and where this is frowned upon to not do it,  not so far from us. In fact, thanks 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 cut DNA and to fix bad mutations responsible of diseases.

Despite the widespread fear to sea appear a new class of genetically enhanced people, it’s very likely that, in few years, gene editing will become normal, and the laws restricting embryos edition 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, it exists a technique which could make resistant their children to serious illness, they have to use it. He even compare the CRISPR to the Ritalin, a drug prescribed to children with a lack of concentration, saying that we have to use CRISPR as we do to provide Ritalin, or education. The bioethicist Ronald Green rejected this idea.

For him, we don’t 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, but 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 very costly. Some measures could correct these disparities, like heath care. But, this technique could also have an impact on family dynamics, if a child is not like his parents expected. But, for Savulescu, CRISPR does not have to be banned for that.