how about designing them to change their own nappies ?
(Baby-sitter with sense of smell )

Quoting rayilynlee <[log in to unmask]>:

> 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
> [log in to unmask] 
> 
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