the entry for Genetically modified organism in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is pretty good coverage of the issue and its history.

speaking of history... this tool has been around since 1983... that's three decades, so every political party in the world has had a crack at regulating or not regulating it, as the case may be.

would a diabetic consent to genetic manipulation if it meant controlling their condition throughout their lifetime? Genetic manipulation of somatic cells (those in the body, not the gametes that are for reproduction) could provide hormones needed but not available for whatever reason... growth hormone for those children who do not produce adequate amounts for what we term normal growth.

on the other hand we have people who currently use plastic surgery to achieve their ideal of beauty who would just love to use this tool on themselves or their unlucky offspring. Can you envision children that actually DO look like Barbie Dolls??? ... but there's always some banana republic that would have no problem with legal human genetic tinkering of any sort.

Regulation is only as good as the foresight of the regulators... which means you need folks who understand evolution and science. Putting Creationists in charge of genetic engineering is like putting the Flat Earth Society in charge of NASA.