Who is the "you"? Nothing more than the result of this process... unless you believe people exist metaphysically before having a corporeal presence? In which case you essentially believe in a soul, which is not a very secular belief at all.

Nothing about the parent's comment assumed a metaphysical identity.

It's unambiguously true that no one chose their genes or their childhood environment. That statement doesn't require a metaphysical chooser who might have made the choice.

No one chooses their genes because to a very important extent you are your genes. There is no meaningful "you" that could have done the choosing.

The fact that it could not be otherwise doesn't make it incoherent to say that you didn't choose your genes.

What's the underlying point you're trying to get across? It doesn't seem like a productive thing to go on about.

That is not true. People may share genes but may not share identity

As I said, to a very important extent it is true. Identical twins have a lot more in common than any other two people, even close siblings, often even when they are separated at birth. This gets us into semantics about what "identity" is, but that is indeed the issue that I'm trying to raise anyway.

> Modern twin studies have concluded that almost all traits are partly influenced by genetic differences.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_study

The child is the outcome, not the winner/loser. The child is more akin to the reward the lottery gives out than the person getting the lottery. Closest participant to that would be the parents who are getting a "lottery" child... as they (currently) have no deliberate control over the genetic expressions.

> The child is more akin to the reward the lottery gives out than the person getting the lottery.

You seem to be missing the point that we are stuck with who we are. Our mental and physical faculties are handed down to us. We receive them, even though they define us. We experience ourselves.

We don't "receive them", we are them. Unless you, as another poster pointed out, believe in the Guf or similar.

Eh, we completely receive them and as technology improves our makers will have increased options on which ones we receive, especially if we're wealthy.

[Eugenics has entered the chat]

So you think souls exist before people are born and so can be lucky. Got it.