Scientists, working with stem cells, have genetically altered a human embryo for the first time. An author of the project’s study which was released at a scientific symposium, said, on behalf of his colleagues: “None of us wants to make designer babies.” Not them and not now, but what of the future?

These scientists, working at the Center for Reproductive Medicine and Infertility at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, used an abnormal embryo which they said could never have developed into a baby. Presumably, then the purpose of the experiment was simply to prove it could be done. Scientific curiosity?

Remember Dolly, the cloned sheep a few years ago? No sooner had she been introduced to the world than several voices were heard on the fringes of the scientific community proclaiming that they would produce a cloned human. It hasn’t happened. Not yet, but it is not entirely outside the realm of possibility.

As for altered embryos, who is to say that at some future date some scientists may succumb to the temptation to insert into an embryo some particular genes that would produce a genius or an especially strong, fast child who could become a great athlete? If this were to happen would we be in danger of creating a class of “super children,” with all the rest relegated to an inferior class?

Many will hold concerns such as these. The debate over how far science should tinker with the basics of human life will not soon be over.