Designer babies are coming
The Fertility Institute 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.

For decades now a technology called preimplantation genetic diagnosis, or 
PGD, has enabled In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) clinics to screen embryos for 
more than 100 potentially debilitating and often deadly diseases before the 
embryo is implanted into the mother. A medical revolution has thus unfolded, 
enabling literally tens of thousands of couples and their babies to sidestep 
some of the world's most terrifying diseases.

Take the case of Cindy and John Whitley. Their first child died at the age 
of 9 months from a deadly genetic disorder called spinal muscular atrophy. 
Genetic analysis uncovered that the Whitley's statistically had a 1 in 4 
chance of creating a child with spinal muscular atrophy each time they 
conceived. Unwilling to risk having another child with the deadly disorder, 
the Whitley's used PGD to conceive three children, all healthy.

Yet PGD allows scientists to screen embryos for much more than just genetic 
diseases, and therein lies the promise - and the peril - of designer babies.

Gender was the first major genetic trait beyond genetic disease to be widely 
manipulated through PGD. The Fertility Institutes is a leader in the field, 
claiming nearly 100% success in providing couples with a baby of a 
predetermined gender. Completely healthy and fertile couples from all over 
the world are coming to The Fertility Institutes everyday to confront the 
risk, the expense, and the discomfort of conceiving their baby in a test 
tube, all for the ability to choose the sex of their baby.
Gender selection is a big business. Dr. Steinberg, Director at The Fertility 
Institutes, claims that they are performing on the order of 10 gender 
selection fertilizations every week, each for a fee of $18,400. Although In 
Vitro Fertilizations were originally designed to help parents that were 
unable to conceive children naturally, Steinberg says that a staggering 70% 
of their clients have absolutely no difficulty conceiving children, coming 
to the Institute purely for opportunity to choose the sex of their baby.

Now, in the latest twist in the march towards designer babies, The Fertility 
Institutes says they will soon be able to offer couples the ability to 
screen their embryos for eye color, hair color, and complexion. The 
Institute cannot change the DNA of the donating couple - if neither the 
mother nor the father has genes for green eyes, for example, then the 
Institute cannot give them a baby with green eyes. Yet within the 
constraints inherent in the DNA of the donating couple, The Fertility 
Institute is willing to screen embryos for these traits. The Fertility 
Institute wants to offer several other customizations, and many more are 
sure to be released in the coming years as the science behind screening for 
them is developed.

In many countries around the world PGD is heavily regulated and designer 
babies are strictly out of the question. Yet in a strange paradox, even as 
the United States is one of the world's most regulated nations in several 
areas of medical research and development, PGD is completely legal and 
unregulated in the United States. Hence, even as the United States is 
hindered by regulation in areas such as stem cell research, the country 
seems poised to be a world leader in the designer baby revolution.

At the moment, The Fertility Institutes carries the mantle as the company at 
the forefront of this revolution, and as such they are a lightning rod for 
the praise and adoration, but also the bitter and severe anger, of those on 
both sides of this great moral debate.

The genie is officially out of the bottle, in fact it probably has been for 
a long time. There is no stopping the designer baby revolution. Even as some 
countries try to clamp down on it, others will allow it. Progress, if we 
call it that, will continue unabated. A similar phenomenon has unfolded with 
embryonic stem cell research in recent years. Even as the Bush 
administration almost completely strangled US investment and research in 
this promising field, other countries invested heavily and advances 
continued.

A new generation of genetically enhanced designer babies is inevitable in 
the coming decades. Yet for those of us that are merely "normal", do not 
despair. Even as we are outmatched by the next generation genetically, a 
host of new technologies from chip implants to gene therapy may allow us to 
keep up, allowing us to enhance ourselves in equally transformative ways. 
The future will indeed be interesting.

Rayilyn Brown
Director AZNPF
Arizona Chapter National Parkinson Foundation
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