I think too often in our society parents, who may have good impulses, overreach and try to mold and shape and direct their child.

If parents are aiming at choosing children who will be good athletes, or great musicians, or who will get into Ivy League schools, or who will be tall enough to make the basketball team, then there is a danger that the life of the child will bear the burden of that expectation; and the risk of disappointment and the cost of disappointment will be even higher than they are now, and even now they can be considerable.

The relief of suffering is a great good. The curing of illness and disease - these are great human goods. This is the mission of medicine.

My goal is first of all to promote a public debate about where markets serve the public good and where they don't belong. That's my first goal.

What intrigued me most was not the technology as such but the questions about the human goods, the fundamental human values and virtues that are raised by debates over biotechnology.

One can imagine a kind of hormonal arms race or genetic arms race, whether it's to do with height or IQ, conceivably, in the future. So it's limitless, and that's another of the features that sets it apart from medical intervention.

Democracy does not require perfect equality, but it does require that citizens share in a common life.