10 Times Star Trek Predicted The Future
2. Eugenics
Star Trek itself did not create eugenics. Adolf Hitler and Josef Mengele may be the most notorious proponents of the practice in history, with untold devastation visited upon their victims during their lifetimes.
However, the idea of genetic engineering and augmentation, which surfaced with the character of Khan Noonian Singh, has led to much discussion in the scientific community regarding the ethics and efficacy of genetic engineering. In 2006, author Richard Dawkins argued that enough time had passed since the atrocities of 20th Century eugenics movements to open the door to speaking about the topic again.
In Star Trek, genetic engineering was banned, with augments being barred from serving in Starfleet - owing to the unfair advantage that their abilities would give them. This genetic engineering allowed the parents of these children to select different traits at will that they would choose to either embellish, remove or redesign.
Writing in 2003, Tania Simoncelli spoke about the rise in Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis, with (at the time) some 2000 children having been born worldwide after using said procedure to screen for, and avoid, conditions such as Down's Syndrome, Tay Sachs Disease and Sickle Cell anemia. In 2001, PGD was then requested for use by Dr. Norbert Gleicher, to offer 'gender balancing' - allowing the parents to choose the gender of their child, to allow a balance of gender in their families.
His request was denied. However, the article contends that PGD offers a very real risk of becoming a eugenics technique that will not only allow the creation of an augmented race (though perhaps not exactly matching the Augments of Star Trek) along with the devaluation of one gender over another.