Read It and Weep: Embryos Thrown Away for "Unattractiveness"
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.
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.
More here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7918296.stm
So, we already had a "Gattacca" situation, where parents can genetically test their children to see if they have the "sports gene." Now we're in a "Brave New World" situation, where babies are created, but only the "good" ones get to grow up, while all the "unhealthy, ugly" ones have to die. :o(
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.
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.
More here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7918296.stm
So, we already had a "Gattacca" situation, where parents can genetically test their children to see if they have the "sports gene." Now we're in a "Brave New World" situation, where babies are created, but only the "good" ones get to grow up, while all the "unhealthy, ugly" ones have to die. :o(