Designer babies are here?
Not just yet. From BBC News:
A US clinic has sparked controversy by offering would-be parents the chance to select traits like the eye and hair colour of their offspring.
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.
…
The science is based on a lab technique called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD.
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.
Dr Steinberg said couples might seek to use the clinic’s services for both medical and cosmetic reasons.
You know what I’m sick of? Bullshit medical “journalism”.
Where some fucking doctor in LA tries to hype up his IVF clinic by calling it a designer baby factory; just so that when Paris cunting Hilton decides it’s time to procreate, and thusly have her indentured servant carry the perfect anti-Christ to term, she’ll look this guy up.
So he puts out a press-release.
And the BBC picks it up and gets blue-sky quotes from Dr Gillian Lockwood, a “UK fertility expert” and member of the “Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ ethics committee”, like:
“If it gets to the point where we can decide which gene or combination of genes are responsible for blue eyes or blonde hair, what are you going to do with all those other embryos that turn out like me to be ginger with green eyes?”
If.
Well, what if the machines rebel first, lady? Or the Singularity gets here.
China didn’t need any fancy tech to get a roughly 20million strong population gap between males and females. They just threw out the girls.
Selection isn’t the same thing as design. Sure, it’s good to talk and workshop future ethical scenarios, but don’t make that the focus of your story. Please. Because when we actually can design life, blue eyes will be the last thing anyone will be asking for. Or, it will be the most boring thing, anyway.
You can worry about the missing green-eyed, I’ll be asking for a chameleon DNA-splice.
C’mon man, Technological Journalism is a binary macro: “Change” vs. “We shouldn’t change.” They don’t get it, so they should fear it, it’s one big denial game.
Plus, if the machines rebel first it’s not a rebellion, it’s just a population shift :)
I’d shoot for black sclera, like a horse has, and keep my nice grey/green irises; k-thanks.
It’s sort of annoying that people seem to think blonde and blue-eyed is something every parent (even within European ethnicities) would opt to design/select for. I actually find blonde hair and blue eyes very unflattering and would never wish such features onto my offspring, or myself. My lover adores red hair and I suspect might CHOOSE ginger hair given the chance to have it, or they would keep it black and just never go grey.
Even keeping within ‘normal’ appearances I don’t think the world would wind up a sea of Nordic-looking clones. How narrow minded an expectation. (They’re afraid the Nazi clone children will get smuggled into their or their wives’ uteruses to take over the world.)
If my-wife-the-ex-neuroscientist-shaman was back from Peru, she could gut both the science and the journalism in that piece (evo-genetics and sci-journo being previous gigs).
For me, I’ll go with the retractable claws (maybe the optional genital spine-hooks also carried by my namesake species) and much better fur.
a timely critique of technology journalism:
http://al3x.net/2009/03/03/towards-better-technology-journalism.html
Let’s also not forget that since it’s possible to screen for Down Syndrome early on in pregnancy, and then terminate (which happens, IIRC, something like 95% of the time that Down Syndrome is detected), effectively everyone who’s parents ever had their embryo tested is a designer baby as their parents have made a decision one way or the other about their genetic make-up.
So, yes, agreed; this is simple screening, not design.
I think this is going to make for a dangerous road if there isn’t a way to monitor how these companies are preceding with the technology they are acquiring. We are now one step closer to being able to genetically engineer babies to make them stronger, faster, smarter, etc. This vid gives and interesting perspective about it, http://www.newsy.com/videos/babies_made_to_order/