Slashdot Mirror
Designer Babies, Version 1.0
Stickerboy writes: "A 30 year-old woman in Chicago gave birth to a pre-pregnancy genetically screened and selected baby 17 months ago, which is being reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association today. Doctors at the Reproductive Genetics Institute in Chicago took 23 eggs from her, screened the eggs for a gene that causes an early form of Alzheimer's, and then fertilized and implanted the eggs back in her womb. Shades of the movie Gattaca - this is a good specific development, but the start of a very controversial trend. Read more about it in the Washington Post or read the abstract in JAMA."
My wife and I are actually quite young, and I'm trying to persuade her to wait until Science advances to the point that we can select the gender and fitness level of our child. I've always wanted an athletic young son, and considering the irreplacable amount of money and time it takes to raise a child, this only makes sense.
I'm forwarding her this article now; perhaps this will convince her I'm not such a dreamer after all.
If guns kill people, then CmdrTaco's keyboard misspells words.
>implanted the eggs back in her womb.
So, they put more than one baby inside her and one was born. I notice the submitter describes this as 'good'. Eugenics is BAD - yes even trendy 21st century Smart Eugenics. The inconvenient die for the sake of the Master Race.