Build Your Own Baby

[Brawny]

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.

http://singularityhub.com/2009/02/25/designer-babies-like-it-or-not-here-they-come/

So, if you had the choice to change arbitrary aesthetic aspects of your child at no cost, would you?

 

[Sovieto]

Yup. I don't see what is wrong with changing a random factor to your liking.

 

[Brawny]

Yup. I don't see what is wrong with changing a random factor to your liking.

Losing randomness in genetics means a gene pool much more susceptible to disease and mutations from inbreeding.

Plus, once everyone's blue eyed and blonde haired, the cliche definition of beauty would change. Changing your kids' genes would follow fad trends... I'd hope my parents didn't choose how I would look because it was "in" at the time.

 

[Sovieto]

I would think this doesn't go beyond celebrities spending.. It would take 100s of years I'd say for this to become affordable for the average household. This would require some serious operation to alter the DNA, no?

Also, I don't see how it would be inbreeding and cause diseases?

 

[Gikoku Harakami]

http://singularityhub.com/2009/02/25/designer-babies-like-it-or-not-here-they-come/

So, if you had the choice to change arbitrary aesthetic aspects of your child at no cost, would you?

Nope.

Mother: OH MAH GAAAWD! MY BABY CAN LOOK LIKE BRAD PIIIITT!!! *screams*

Father: .. ):

 

[anax4aero]

Gattaca anyone?

If you've seen that movie, you'll agree with me that this is a terrible idea.
Plus, interfering with the randomness of nature in a way is rather horrific...soon you'll have babies in tubes so you can make them more "genetically" perfect, and then the concept of love and family just falls apart.

 

[Zubayr]

You know how many Robert Pattinson's there's going to be now?.

(*Shudders*)

:O I COULD MAKE A PRINNY!.

 

[Napalmbrain]

I would think this doesn't go beyond celebrities spending.. It would take 100s of years I'd say for this to become affordable for the average household. This would require some serious operation to alter the DNA, no?

Also, I don't see how it would be inbreeding and cause diseases?

I don't see how it would take hundreds of years to become affordable to the average household, since the procedure isn't that difficult (just some injections, really)- in fact, gene therapy (for people who've already been born, and doesn't pass on to their children) has been around for almost 20 years.

It's not exactly inbreeding, the principle is similar- if it becomes fashionable to have a particular trait, say green eyes or black hair, then loads of parents will choose that for their children, so lots of people will end up with the same genes, which could lead to problems, since ideally the gene pool of humanity should be as varied as possible, otherwise more people are vulnerable to particular diseases.

Personally, I would be okay with screening my child for genetic diseases, blindness, etc., but I wouldn't want purely cosmetic changes. Anax is right, the world of Gattaca is not one I'd like to see in the future.

 

[AndThen?]

But variety is hot. It's not like everyone wants their kids to look a certain way. And there's no way that Asian parents will ever have a blonde-haired, blue-eyed kid. You're still only working from your own gene-pool.

 

[Bodine]

Oh science, you make me giggle

 

[Sixty]

I don't think many people would go for it, so I'm not that bothered about it.

 

[surfinrach90]

Agreed with Napalm, I'd be okay with screening for deseases and whatnot, but I'd never want to change how my kid looks.

If it helped with deformalities (I don't know if it does?) then I suppose that would benefit the child in the long run, so that would be okay. But I disagree with altering an unborn child just to please the parents. That's just selfish.

 

[AndThen?]

You're not altering the unborn child, you're just picking one of many with desirable characteristics... right?

 

[surfinrach90]

Hmm, I was under the impression it was making alterations to one, not just picking a certain one? My bad, don't know too much on the subject.
Picking out ones doesn't seem so bad.

 

[AndThen?]

Yeah, they can't actually change DNA (yet). So, no matter how much I want a black baby, I'm just going to have to adopt. xD