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One of my friends has decided to have children with the help of a sperm donor and I have taken more than a passing interest in her search. This is actually the 2nd woman in my broader group of acquaintances who have have decided to go it alone. They are both highly educated, but lack the physical attractiveness that would make it possible to lock down the type of man they have been interested in. But while commitment from the right man can be hard to come by, sperm is incredibly cheap. We are taking elite sperm here, like entirely clean bill of health for 2 generations back, model good looks, tall, athletic, pursuing an MD or PHD in STEM, comes from a family of inventors, grandparents who lived to the age of 100 etc. Imagine someone like the Swede in Philip Roths American Pastoral. You can get a vial of this sperm for 1000 USD, and why wouldnt you as a single woman?
Im not entirely convinced that the draw backs of being a single mother in this situation cannot be off-set by the benefits of having this superior genetic material. I have sometimes during this time felt a tad bit guilty for procreating with my partner with our comparatively average genes. Yes, we will probably pass on good intelligence, but what about physical traits and health? Is there anything parental love can provide that can compare to the confidence that comes with being a 190cm athletic, but yet very intelligent young man?
All this has made me wonder if "leftover" educated women will produce the new elite of tomorrow. Surely this is a more efficient way of making superior babies than the pre-implantation embryo testing of the Collinses? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/family/life/pronatalists-save-mankind-by-having-babies-silicon-valley/?
Why do you feel guilty?
It's true, some people are absolutely superior to others, and this superiority has a genetic basis. But the tall athletic Harvard PhD isn't that much better than you and your offspring, all things considered. Most of them too, just like the "general population", will be consigned to the dustbin of history immediately after their deaths, remembered in a few generations as nothing more than a node in an ancestry.com family tree, if at all. Beauty, health, and intelligence are all erased in the oblivion of death. This is not in any way a call to nihilism; merely a call to put things in perspective.
At any rate, the idea that we can simply know in advance how to design the ubermensch, and that it is straightforwardly desirable to populate the earth with such ubermenschen, is at best questionable. Life is too complex for that; there are too many unexpected things that flower in unexpected places:
-- Human, All Too Human, §224
I philosophically 100% on board with this.
However, when I step out of the philosophical realm and into the practical world, and when I forget about the rest of humanity, and just focus on my own little family, I think its obvious that some outcomes are a little bit better. All else being equal it is better to be taller and with a lower risk of diabetes and heart disease. This is true even if none of those things will change the course of history.
Yes, it’s certainly natural to want to minimize physical suffering. But unless you or your wife has a major congenital disorder that you know will be passed onto your children, I wouldn’t worry about it. I wouldn’t lose sleep over a 2% greater lifetime risk of diabetes.
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