Designer Babies

[Laurie]

I don't think that I would feel very good about it seeing where pure bred dogs ended up.

 

[EcK]

are we talking cockers here?

 

[Riva]

Designer baby row over US clinic

Parents can select hair and eye colour

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. (BBC article at link)

and so the race of superhumans begins...

Us mongrels better watch out.

OMG i think i am one of them..........

wait let me ask my parents..

yep they reluctantly told me the truth.

 

[heart]

It's not feasible at the present time, so I guess it's the official word

Hopefully there isn't any human research going on out there, but given the state of the majority of the population, I see it as entirely possible.

I never take anything for granted.

 

[BlueScreen]

I want a blue one!

 

[velocity]

finding new and novel ways of objectifying people! hooray! the future is bright, i'm on board.

 

[EcK]

finding new and novel ways of objectifying people! hooray! the future is bright, i'm on board.

I think the word 'objectifying' assumes too much.
Ur biased to the core kiddo

Let's not fall into the cartesian dualism bullshit

 

[Nonsensical]

That's pretty sad, people just need to go with what they get and like it, because hair and eye color is such a secondary thing to your child that it should matter that much. It's pretty pathetic what this world is coming to. I can also see why many people would like this, so if it makes them happy, fine. I am just not in support of it, you just need to go with the flow.

 

[Laurie]

My husband has great steel grey eyes. I have brown. We ended up with 1 hazel and 3 brown. I just have to tell myself that they all got his blue eye gene. I would never "designer" them though. They have the combo of genes of the healthiest sperm, why would I mess with that?

 

[ptgatsby]

They have the combo of genes of the healthiest sperm, why would I mess with that?

That's a good argument against doing it. I'd still screen for genetic diseases, but would have to investigate this issue to see what kind of impact it could have.

 

[93JC]

zOMG Gattaca!

 

[Kangirl]

I'd screen for genetic disease. This is a difficult topic because even the smallest and most innocuous sounding opinion - 'I want my baby to have his Daddy's blue eyes yay!' - has all sorts of implications in an area of research that is basically an ethical minefield. I'm uneasy with cosmetic tampering, but I don't know if I'm uneasy enough to support making it illegal. When we get into areas like intelligence and athletic ability, though, and assuming we will one day have the means to tamper with these things (if we don't already) - that just opens up a big ol' giant can of differently flavoured worms. Actually so does the cosmetic stuff, just less directly. It goes right to the heart of questions about humanity and the 'worth' of the individual.

 

[CrystalViolet]

zOMG Gattaca!

That was a great movie.

 

[booyalab]

Parents in hot climates aren't going to be so tickled about choosing the obvious blonde/blue eyes option when their kid has a sunburn every day until he's 10 and skin cancer by 15.

 

[ptgatsby]

Parents in hot climates aren't going to be so tickled about choosing the obvious blonde/blue eyes option when their kid has a sunburn every day until he's 10 and skin cancer by 15.

That shouldn't really happen - the genes for hair and eyes are relatively independent within the sample taken. That is, they won't be selecting fair skin which would be more susceptible. All this will do is pick from the children that have the two (sets of) regressive genes present.

Still more likely to be fair skinned, and susceptible, but the kid would be equally so if they weren't picking out hair and eye color.

 

[freedom geek]

I'm pro-designer babies. None of us have been able to choose our genes and having someone who presumably cares about you do it is better than leaving it to nature. Anyway its the beginning of the path to the type of radical human augmentation I'm a fan of.

 

[Wade Wilson]

What'll happen if someone accidentally puts alcohol in their blood surrogate?!

 

[Athenian200]

Designer baby row over US clinic

Parents can select hair and eye colour

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. (BBC article at link)

This could become an interesting fashion trend. Since some will do it and some won't, it will be interesting to see how it affects society, and what kind of beliefs crop up around the ones that came into being this way. How these people are treated will be a good measure of how far (or how little) we've come as people.

There are definitely risks, but I'm so curious to see what happens... I don't like just leaving well enough alone when there's potential to see the effects of something more.