Designer Babies are here
Slashdot | Designer Babies
“The Fertility Institutes recently stunned the fertility community by being the first company to boldly offer couples the opportunity to screen their embryos not only for diseases and gender, but also for completely benign characteristics such as eye color, hair color, and complexion. The Fertility Institutes proudly claims this is just the tip of the iceberg, and plans to offer almost any conceivable customization as science makes them available. Even as couples from across the globe are flocking in droves to pay the company their life’s savings for a custom baby, opponents are vilifying the company for shattering moral and ethical boundaries. Like it or not, the era of designer babies is officially here and there is no going back.”
This brings whole new meaning to the notion of adaptive design. Now how about designer parents please? Here’s the full article and a link to their evil web site.
Ok, even if we do put aside the whole issue of the evils of gender selection and inconvenient disabilities, eugenics is just plain evil and stupid. It is a cultural form of short sighted hubris. It is a form of mono-cropping that will surely be detrimental. Challenges lead to innovative thinking, and innovative thinking is good. Although, here’s a thought. Set up a company like this, and whenever parents come, put them on a list for removal from the gene pool. I’m not talking about people who have very specific healthcare risks that they don’t want to pass down to their children unnecessarily… that’s a different issue. People who want designer babies have perhaps lost an understanding of the value of bio-diversity, and perhaps represent a danger to the survival of our species as much as any other eugenics enthusiast.