Most parents want to improve the lot of their children. Providing a safe environment, a healthful diet, a good education, exposure to diverse experiences are some of the more conventional means of enhancing the health and opportunities of children. Increasingly, parents or would-be parents are being offered genetic means for enhancing their children's lives. To whichever means parents turn, the road to enhancement is paved with some deadly and not-so-deadly sins that all parents and social stewards ought to learn to avoid. They are calculativeness, overbearingness, shortsightedness, hasty judgment, and pessimism.