What if you and your pregnant wife could choose the eye or hair color of your unborn child ahead of time?
A Los Angeles fertility doctor is causing considerable debate after announcing he is close to being able to offer these options to parents.
"I would predict that by next year, we will have determined sex with 100 percent certainty on a baby and we will have determined eye color with about an 80 percent accuracy rate," Dr Jeff Steinberg of Fertility Institute told the Early Show.
Some are questioning whether making these choices is a good use of parenting skills. Critics suggest that these so-called designer babies will turn children into commodities or create a society in which certain traits – such as red hair – carry a stigma.
There are also concerns that because of the high cost involved, wealthier families will be able to make choices that are not available to others. The service is said to cost about $18,000.
Steinberg said the technique – known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis – could be used for both medical and cosmetic reasons.
For example, he suggested to the BBC that mothers and fathers may want a child with darker skin if an older sibling has already developed a melanoma.
So what if parents chose the child’s hair and eye color? It’s not like this child will be super-child. It’s pretty obvious to anyone who observes the world that there is no one single hair or eye color that is faster, smarter, and more talented than anybody else? It varies so much among the same color, there can be very different individuals. Thus, I don’t think this will hamper the kid’s individuality, and it won’t let them have it easy in life either. Now, what shouldn’t be allowed is giving your kid super-enhancers, like extra steroidedup muscles to be good in sports, that’s really going to ruin everybody else’s chances. Hair and eye color don’t matter a bit. Who cares? It’s the parents own genes and the woman’s own womb anyways, she’s the one carrying the baby, of course she has a right to decide which combination of her and her partners’ genes she wants to carry. Doesn’t affect anybody else though. No biggie. Also, there are societies filled with primarily black-haired brown eyes, or blonde hair blue eyes, and they didn’t die out, or exhibit mass disease symptoms so your fears about linkages to those other traits is not even very legitimate.
Don’t these people realize that genes usually control more than one thing? For example a gene that controls hair or eye color can also be linked to macular degeneration later in life or liver issues. When these genes come together naturally I think there are more natural safeguards. I am afraid that these genetically altered blue eyed and blonde haired babies can have health issues due to the forced expression of these generally recessive traits. Were playing god with these children and I hope they don’t pay the price.
This situation is unethical. I mean, seriously? Why do people want to control everything about their babies. They should love them the way they are. Plus, what if the child doesn’t want what the parents gave them. Parents shouldn’t be able to control who their children will be, only the children should.
People should stop playing God.