The President's Council on Bioethics Look younger, perform better, feel happier, and become more “perfect." Biotechnology promises to make all of these possible, but what kind of society do we find ourselves in when these modifications are an everyday reality? This ground-breaking report, the first of its kind in public bioethics, examines the ethical and humanitarian implications of genetic modification and the effect it is likely to have on humanity and our happiness.

Excerpt from the manifesto:
"On the optimistic view, the emerging picture is one of unmitigated progress and improvement. It envisions a society in which more and more people are able to realize the American dream of liberty, prosperity, and justice for all. It is a nation whose citizens are longer-lived, more competent, better accomplished, more productive, and happier than human beings have ever been before. It is a world in which many more human beings—biologically better-equipped, aided by performance-enhancers, liberated from the constraints of nature and fortune—can live lives of achievement, contentment, and high self-esteem, come what may.

But there are reasons to wonder whether life will really be better if we turn to biotechnology to fulfill our deepest human desires. There is an old expression: to a man armed with a hammer, everything looks like a nail. To a society armed with biotechnology, the activities of human life may seem more amenable to improvement than they really are. Or we may imagine ourselves wiser than we really are. Or we may get more easily what we asked for only to realize it is much less than what we really wanted.

We want better children—but not by turning procreation into manufacture or by altering their brains to gain them an edge over their peers. We want to perform better in the activities of life—but not by becoming mere creatures of our chemists or by turning ourselves into tools designed to win or achieve in inhuman ways. We want longer lives—but not at the cost of living carelessly or shallowly with diminished aspiration for living well, and not by becoming people so obsessed with our own longevity that we care little about the next generations. We want to be happy—but not because of a drug that gives us happy feelings without the real loves, attachments, and achievements that are essential for true human flourishing.