Designed-Generation Regulation Debate Splits City Forum Between 'Inequality' and 'Freedom'

The first generation of designed babies turns 36 this year, thirty-six years after their 1990 birth, and as previously reported, their children — the second generation — are beginning to enter society. The city held the forum as part of its effort to gather opinion ahead of debate over revising the 1983 Design Regulation Act. About 60 people attended, a mix of designed-generation individuals, their parents, and citizens who identify as "natural" (non-designed).

Kei Tachiki, 34, of the designed generation and head of an advocacy group, argued, "The current situation, where how far a child's traits can be altered depends on the parents' financial means, locks in inequality before a child is even born. Regulation should be tightened, narrowing the scope of what can be designed at all." Tachiki spoke of her own silver hair and pale-pigmented eyes: "I like them, but it left me with complicated feelings once I learned they were the result of my parents' financial means." One audience member asked whether tighter regulation would also narrow the choices available to children yet to be born; Tachiki replied, "It's less about choice and more about the gap between those who have it and those who don't."

A representative of a parents' group with designed-generation children countered, "If regulation is tightened unilaterally, it risks treating the generation already designed, and their families, as though they went 'too far.' If the system is going to change, we'd like it framed as a standard going forward, not a retroactive judgment." Another parent said, "My child takes pride in having good night vision. I'd hate for this regulatory debate to sound like a denial of these children's individuality itself."

A city official closed the forum by saying, "Neither the call for correcting inequality nor the call for consideration toward the generation already designed can be dismissed. We won't rush to a conclusion, and will hold several more sessions through next year," adding that today's views would be kept on record. Designed-generation citizens are also included among those eligible for the previously reported joint coming-of-age ceremony (trial run next spring), and the official said, "The ceremony debate and the design-regulation debate are separate tracks, but I feel the larger question of how to treat this generation runs through both."

Another designed-generation woman at the forum, 28, said, "I understand the inequality Tachiki is pointing to, but I don't think tightening regulation is the only answer. I didn't choose my own appearance, but I like it. It feels complicated when tighter regulation starts to look like a judgment on our existence itself" — a sign that opinion is not uniform even among those it concerns most directly.

A citizen who identifies as "natural" — non-designed — also spoke at the forum. A 45-year-old company employee said, "Those of us who are natural can't just watch the designed generation's debate from the sidelines either. It's also a question of which choice my own grandchildren's generation will make someday," pointing to the difficulty of designing policy across generations. The city official who moderated the forum, picking up on the remark, summed up, "What became clear today is that the designed, the parents, and the non-designed are each looking at the same system on a different timeline." The next forum is scheduled for November.