this story hit me on a personal level, as i was screened for the 'probability' of having a child with severe learning disability. the test was rather basic, but the result was that at the age of 15, i was told that i should never have kids.
i've grown, and have accepted this, but for a different reason that this story doesn't touch upon, the child's welfare. whilst you could look at someone with a learning disability (an extreme example, but apt i feel) as a 'burden' on society, why not turn it around and look at the society which cannot seem to tolerate difference or exceptions?
my personal opinion is that it would be unfair to the child to bring them into a society which, despite wonderful intentions by a good few, can also be disfavourable towards them. from lack of funding to services, to having to deal with people on the street staring or whispering, to minimal opertunities for work and recreational activities.
so that is out world, at the moment. it is getting better, little by little, but at this current time, i have no intention of subjecting a child who may or may not be disabled to it.
moving back to the story. again i feel the intolerance displayed for average doesn't really endear me to the characters nor the society they inhabit. i would ave liked to have more interactionfrom the parents, who might have been able to express the differing opinions and give the story a little more balance, and make the lead characters change of heart a bit more realistic.
enjoyable, emotive but i feel i would have been drawn to a longer short story better, possibly deleving into the wealth gap between those who could afford the genectic modifications and those could not, the stigma of being imperfect (or in this case average) and the reprecusions of having limited genetic deversity (ie, a disease affecting everyone with the non-alcoholic gene implanted or similar).
lots of room for exspansion, and such a story deserves credit. you don't give second thought to a world that didn't grab you.