Strollerderby
Fertility Clinic Offers Designer Babies
Wanna make sure your baby has sparkling blue eyes? What
about tan skin and blond hair? You
Go Back To Strollerderby
5 Comments
Knitty commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amIf they could assure that our second child didn’t have the (unknown) genetic marker for autism, I would pay any price. Even if all this clinic is doing is allowing parents to select gender and cosmetic appearance-related traits, I hardly see how that makes them “without souls.”
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI know my clinic offers PGD, but only for health reasons.
“Couples with infertility related to recurrent miscarriage or unsuccessful IVF cycles and couples who are at risk for passing on inherited genetic disease to their offspring.”By screening embryos prior to transfer they hopefully can save more families from horrific pain and grief.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amAnd they don’t guarantee absolute success either. My RE told me that he could send out our sperm to be washed by this clinic and then he would send up the ones likely to produce girls. I said no because that’s just too much. I just wanted a healthy baby.
Anonymous commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amIf they could ensure my child didn’t develop Type I diabetes, like I have, then I would pay the extra cost, no matter what it was!
diera commented on Jan 01 70 at 12:00 amI think you’re over-stating what could be accomplished with this, and the fear factor involved. The lab isn’t producing ‘designer babies’, at least not as I understand the term, because they don’t have any way of *changing* an embryo to have blue eyes or blond hair. All they can do is screen for things within the range of what the parents’ genetics can produce anyway (and that’s a best-case scenario because a lot of the more interesting traits like intelligence and athletic ability aren’t controlled by single genes anyway and aren’t completely understood). If a couple is capable of producing both brown-eyed and blue-eyed children, they might be able to pick out a blue-eyed one for them, but a shrimpy couple isn’t going to wind up with a pro basketball player and a fishbelly-pale couple isn’t going to get a kid with a perma-tan, since those genes aren’t there in the first place.
Add your take:
Note: Babble is a supportive, diverse community. We encourage a range of opinions,
but any unduly hostile comments will be removed.
Comments are delayed up to 15 minutes
The Walt Disney Company supports Babble as a platform dedicated to honest, engaged, informed, intelligent and open conversation about parenting. However, the opinions expressed on this site are those of individual parents/writers and do not reflect the views of Disney. In addition, content provided on this site is for entertainment or informational purposes only and should not be construed as medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, or safety advice.