A US clinic has sparked controversy by offering would-be parents the chance to select traits like the eye and hair colour of their offspring.
The LA Fertility Institutes run by Dr Jeff Steinberg, a pioneer of IVF in the 1970s, expects a trait-selected baby to be born next year.
His clinic also offers sex selection.
UK fertility experts are angered that the service will distract attention from how the same technology can protect against inherited disease.
The science is based on a lab technique called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD.
This involves testing a cell taken from a very early embryo before it is put into the mother’s womb.
Doctors then select an embryo free from rogue genes – or in this case an embryo with the desired physical traits such as blonde hair and blue eyes – to continue the pregnancy, and discard any others.
Dr Steinberg said couples might seek to use the clinic’s services for both medical and cosmetic reasons.
For example, a couple might want to have a baby with a darker complexion to help guard against a skin cancer if they already had a child who had developed a melanoma. But others might just want a boy with blonde hair.
His clinic is offering this cosmetic selection to patients already having genetic screening for abnormal chromosome conditions in their embryos.
Here’s another article on the clinic which says the price is about $18,000.
Only a racist would think Obama is black. Thats how he won. The pro-black racist vote was his, the white-guilt vote was his, and the non-racist I vote for the tallest man put him over the top.
He won my vote when he said “You have to be able to do more than two things at once.” Imagine THAT!!!!
What a stretch goal he set for all of us.
Designer babies will only be cool if you can make them look like smurfs.. of Klingons! (from the new star streks, not the old one!)
What will be interesting is if a gene is found that causes homosexuality. The left will immediately scream for limits on abortion aimed at preventing people wanting to screen for this trait so as to abort the fetus.
#22 Paddy:
This is inevitable. Of course then the people who think people “choose” to be gay will have to admit that god makes queers.
23,
Hmmmmm….
19,
Paraphrasing yet again. In your country you had a choice between 20% of requirements or 80%. As expected 80% was good enough.
“For example, a couple might want to have a baby with a darker complexion to help guard against a skin cancer if they already had a child who had developed a melanoma.”
Suuuure!
And I’ll want one with a small head so he’ll be less vulnerable to meteorite impacts to the cranium.
so let me get this straight. if i ejaculate into a woman who is ovulating and the woman’s egg is fertilized and we decide we don’t want it, it’s an abortion. but if we scrap some eggs from the same woman and i ejaculate into a cup, then we fertilize all of those eggs and pick and choose what we want and keep only one out of, lets say five, the other four are not considered aborted or wrong by the prolifers?
27 Deadulas. I don’t think you’ll have any worries about that.
RBG
>You have to be able to do more than two things at once.”
That’s all it takes? If only McCain knew!
“Would You Want A Designer Baby?”
- of course!
Who wouldn’t want a perfect child?
(I know, there are some idiots around too, but they don’t count)
But the thing is, ‘designer babies’ are only as they are when the arrive. The world and the surrounding is what would actually affects a child’s development.
Duh.
Example: You think you’ve chose the best hair type for your baby, but when she’s 13, she’ll say “Why in the world did you choose my hair to be curly and red??! I hate you!!”
#31
Certainly “designer babies” would come with warranty, hopefully lasting beyong teenage angst years
You’d just get rid of the whining b*tch and get a new one…
#27–Deadulas==There are two major positions on when a woman is pregnant and thus capable of having an abortion: Egg fertilization and Fertilized Egg Implantation.
So, by extension an “abortion” (sic) could take place thru zygote selection/culling only if you are of the first school of thought.
Thankfully, there are other schools of thought. Personally, I don’t think a Product of Conception(PoC) is human until it develops a sense of humor. One of the benefits of this definition would allow the total elimination of the Repuglican Party without the loss of a single human being.
Change you can believe in.
#27, Deadulus,
Any time an egg, zygote, or fetus is expelled from a womb is called an abortion. If it is not in the womb, it would be decanted.
#34–Fusion==nice word play. The difference between a woman’s choice and the action on the PoC. All versus those life potentialities that are not aborted and yet grow up to be one.
Amusing.
So you pick out your child’s appearance. I bet you’ll enjoy arguing with your child when they don’t like what YOU picked for them; as it will indeed at that point be YOUR fault rather than doing things the natural way.
# 25 Named said, “23, Hmmmmm….”
Interesting. That would point towards the genetic defect theory. I’ll show it to my oldest bro. He’s gay and a terrible driver. He’ll get a kick out of it.
#36, Mr. Frodo,
Yes. Our nine yr/o is just starting that crap now. When I was telling my mother, she laughed. Hysterically.