I think the argument that children would not actually mind being born free of disease or with slightly better intelligence etc is fairly sound, though I have a feeling there's more to it than he says (this is an issue I'm still feeling my way around).
I can't help wondering whether children would mind being born right-handed rather than left-handed, or straight rather than gay, or white rather than non-white. All of these things would certainly make their lives easier (she said provocatively rather than seriously).
Although I'm not terribly informed on these things, it seems to me that you're prejudging the issue rather by framing it as one of being "free of disease." Who could object to that? But disease will always be in the eye of the beholder and I don't think that painting all people with genetic conditions as inherently and permanently "diseased" is particularly helpful, either now or in the hypothetical future where we have the technology to do a different sort of eugenics than we've done in the past.
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I can't help wondering whether children would mind being born right-handed rather than left-handed, or straight rather than gay, or white rather than non-white. All of these things would certainly make their lives easier (she said provocatively rather than seriously).
Although I'm not terribly informed on these things, it seems to me that you're prejudging the issue rather by framing it as one of being "free of disease." Who could object to that? But disease will always be in the eye of the beholder and I don't think that painting all people with genetic conditions as inherently and permanently "diseased" is particularly helpful, either now or in the hypothetical future where we have the technology to do a different sort of eugenics than we've done in the past.