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- kewal91
- added this
THIS IS AN AMAZING ARTICLE ON designing babies with genetic manipulation- Basically it talks about pushing science to achieve a tailored baby to your needs: choice of eye colour, athetic make-up and even cancer-resistance. Raises a whole bunch of ethical questions but most "cosmetic" modifications that parents may want in their kid are not that far away from perfection.
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By Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, MSN Money
The convention hall at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's 2007 annual meeting, in Washington, D.C., looked like a luxury shopping mall of futuristic baby making. Company reps held court in brightly colored booths, luring potential customers with bowls of candy and hoping to sell cutting-edge baby-making technology.
What kind of baby can money buy?
Just down the hall, conferees packed a seminar room to hear a talk titled "From Cells to Super Babies." By spending staggering amounts of money, as much as $100,000, picky parents would soon be able to design superior physical, mental and psychological attributes for their babies-to-be, the audience learned.
"Doctors, attorneys and mental-health professionals are all picking and choosing each and every genetic component in order to build a super baby," says Elaine Gordon, a clinical psychologist who specializes in counseling on such issues. "One day you'll be able to select for sex, hair color, confidence index, whether they are an optimist or pessimist, whether they are an athlete or a bookworm."
Talk back: Should parents be able to "design" babies?
That future may be closer than we think. Thanks in part to people choosing parenthood later in life, many would-be parents are already turning to expensive and advanced reproductive technology to beat the biological clock. They are employing prescription drugs, in vitro fertilization, donor eggs and sperm, and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, a technique that lets doctors screen for genetic diseases and gender.
'This is serious, high-tech sex'
So custom baby design may not be far behind, and experts say the biggest obstacles are ethical, not technological.
"As reproductive technologies push the envelope of possibilities, they . . . will blur the edges of what is now formally forbidden: cloning, fetal research," Harvard economist Debora L. Spar writes in her book "The Baby Business." "In the end, the market will win. We will continue to buy, sell and modify our children, generating substantial profits in the process."
Make no mistake: The price tag will be high. And as with most reproductive technology, health insurance is unlikely to cover the cost.
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Click on the link for the full article
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By Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, MSN Money
The convention hall at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's 2007 annual meeting, in Washington, D.C., looked like a luxury shopping mall of futuristic baby making. Company reps held court in brightly colored booths, luring potential customers with bowls of candy and hoping to sell cutting-edge baby-making technology.
What kind of baby can money buy?
Just down the hall, conferees packed a seminar room to hear a talk titled "From Cells to Super Babies." By spending staggering amounts of money, as much as $100,000, picky parents would soon be able to design superior physical, mental and psychological attributes for their babies-to-be, the audience learned.
"Doctors, attorneys and mental-health professionals are all picking and choosing each and every genetic component in order to build a super baby," says Elaine Gordon, a clinical psychologist who specializes in counseling on such issues. "One day you'll be able to select for sex, hair color, confidence index, whether they are an optimist or pessimist, whether they are an athlete or a bookworm."
Talk back: Should parents be able to "design" babies?
That future may be closer than we think. Thanks in part to people choosing parenthood later in life, many would-be parents are already turning to expensive and advanced reproductive technology to beat the biological clock. They are employing prescription drugs, in vitro fertilization, donor eggs and sperm, and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, a technique that lets doctors screen for genetic diseases and gender.
'This is serious, high-tech sex'
So custom baby design may not be far behind, and experts say the biggest obstacles are ethical, not technological.
"As reproductive technologies push the envelope of possibilities, they . . . will blur the edges of what is now formally forbidden: cloning, fetal research," Harvard economist Debora L. Spar writes in her book "The Baby Business." "In the end, the market will win. We will continue to buy, sell and modify our children, generating substantial profits in the process."
Make no mistake: The price tag will be high. And as with most reproductive technology, health insurance is unlikely to cover the cost.
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Click on the link for the full article
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peregrinfalcon
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omg my son was born with heart defect he had surgery at 2 weeks to save his life (thank you to the westmead then camperdown childrens hospital and childflight and the nets team) but i love my kid with all my heart and going through this trauma has made me a better human, he is now a thriving teen with a great attitude some things are mean to be learnt not bought imperfections are perfection and those who are into this crap u buy a car u raise a child warts and all
- 3 years ago
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peregrinfalcon
