The news article above for CNN shows that technology has the potential to undermine traditional morality. Scientists are trying to develop technology that would embed certain genes in maturing embryos that are preferable and weed out the genes that are not. Some genes might even be manufactured in a lab. A common moral belief is that we, as humans should not tamper with what God or “fate” has decided. Technology might undermine this however, allowing parents "design" their babies.
Having the ability to choose ones child has the potential to undermine traditional morality. If someone has the ability to choose the characteristics of a family member, this ability can be seen as immoral and “doomed for disaster”. This is evident in “the Veldt” because the children were able to choose the characteristics of nursery/house, which was figuratively their parent. The same is true for the ability to choose the characteristics of someone’s child. Parents might be expecting too much, and have less feelings toward the child as a human, but more as a robot, programmed to have a certain personality. Choosing someone’s characteristics might also be tampering with fate. Some people strongly believe that everything happens for a reason, and that we should not change it. This is evident in babies that are designed to be disease immune. It might be believed that the child should have gotten the disease, but because of tampering with fait, the child’s destiny has changed. This is less evident, but still viable in "the Veldt". It seemed that it was fate that the parents were killed by the nursery, because of the ironic ending. If the parents were able to change the characteristics of the nursery so that the children were not able to experience the African savannah, but rather a more peaceful place, an alternative ending could have taken place and the parent’s fate could have been escaped.
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