EAST ANGLIA, England, Sept. 5 (UPI) -- The well-educated are more open to the idea of "designing" babies than the poorly educated, find a study by British psychologists.
Dr. Simon Hampton of the University of East Anglia examined what different groups of people in the United Kingdom would "design into" their children given the opportunity.
Through a series of surveys of 100 to 200 participants, Hampton found:
-- The better educated, the further potential parents are prepared to go to improve their children's IQ.
-- People over age 50 interpret certain interventions as "design acts" more readily than people under 25.
-- Men show a significantly greater preference than females for their children to inherit their own characteristics.
-- Both men and women see genetic engineering as acceptable primarily for medical applications.
-- Parents see different physical, social and intellectual characteristics as desirable depending on the sex of the child.
-- Older women and childless women are significantly more willing to "improve" the physical, social and intellectual characteristics of prospective children.
