Smallness of stature or actual dwarfism need not be called a disease, but it is considered a serious disadvantage socially, economically, and, for some, psychologically. The matter of stature poses a question which may well become increasingly real as research progresses. Many writers and some policy statements have strongly opposed genetic enhancement. Bernard Davis warned of a day when there might be unbearable commercial competition in society for the procreation and production of highly enhance children. His assurance may be justified, or maybe not.
Genetic technology is irrepressible.
If the manipulation of human germ-line cells should become feasible in clinical practice, the present opposition to it on moral grounds might be eroded. Advocates of modifying these sex cells during in vitro fertilization will commend both the therapeutic benefits of eliminating diseases and the values of enhancing certain traits. For the sake of illustration at the Houston Conference, LeRoy Walters proposed four hypothetical scenarios involving enhancement. Improving the body's immune system, first, would strengthen resistance to breast cancer and prostrate cancer as people grow older. The power of memory, third, might be doubled from the present retention of ten percent of present experiences to twenty percent.