Completely unrelated to the Star Trek things I have said I want to talk about (which I will write at least one of later today – yell at me if I don’t), genetic manipulation.
“For every Julian Bashir, there’s a Khan Noonian Singh waiting to happen.”
Well…. Perhaps. See, Earth, it’s not the genetic augmentation that creates a Khan. Julian could never have become like that because he has too much empathy and love for others. It’s what drove him to become a doctor. It’s what made him want to help the Jem Hadar, not leave the planet with the Quickening until he’d come up with something that would work.
And that’s not something the augmentation touched. That’s pure Julian. Genetic manipulation cannot create character. That is made through experience and the way people are raised. The genetic manipulation, Earth, is not the source of the problem. It’s just something that can enhance a problem that is already in a character or a culture.
Hitler wasn’t genetically enhanced and he killed around 6 million Jews, and many millions of others, including the physically and mentally disabled, homosexuals, Roma, and anyone who didn’t agree with him.
Genghis Khan wasn’t genetically enhanced, and he overran most of Asia.
The US settlers weren’t genetically enhanced and they conducted transoceanic slave trading and slaughtered millions of Native Americans.
Criminalizing genetic enhancement won’t help, because it isn’t the genetic enhancement that’s the problem. There are always people ready to believe that they are better or know better than everyone else who can find a way to make their beliefs into their lived reality.
(Although if we want to talk about the genetically enhanced who could possibly become a new Khan, we should talk about Jack. But that can come later.)
^^^^
This! Exactly this! This covers the pile of steaming bullshit about genetic manipulation that the Federation clings to.