Designer Babies?

The LA Fertility Institutes run by Dr. Jeff Steinberg, a pioneer of IVF since the 1970’s, has been sparking controversy by beginning to offer parents the chance to select their babies eye color, hair color, and even sex.

The way they do this is by preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or IGP. Doctors test a cell taken from very early embryos before it is put into the mother’s womb. They then select an embryo containing all the desired traits, and toss out all of the “undesirable” embryos that do not match the parent’s wants. The selected embryo is inserted back into the mother, continues on with the pregnancy and is then born for the parents to have.

The clinic states that this procedure can be used for both medical and cosmetic reasons. Dr. Steinberg’s clinic is offering this cosmetic selection to patients already having genetic screening for abnormal chromosome conditions in their embryos. However, it is obvious that these procedures raise serious ethical concerns. Several doctors who disagree with this gene-selection for cosmetic reasons say that babies will eventually become “commodities that you buy off the shelves.” Others question the dependency of this procedure, and whether or not the procedure of gene-selection will actually work. Dr. Steinberg responded to both of these issues by saying, “I would not say this is a dangerous road. It’s an uncharted road.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7918296.stm