Most infants will be ‘designer babies’ in as little as 20 years, a professor claims.
Within 20-to-40 years, hopeful mothers will be able to chose the embryos implanted into their wombs based on their preferences for sex, intelligence, musical ability or disease risk, according to Professor Henry Greely from Standard University, who works in bioethics.
Professor Greely, who wrote ‘The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction’, said: ‘The majority of babies of people who have good health coverage will be conceived this way.’
A designer baby is an embryo that is genetically engineered for specifically selected traits before being implanted into a woman via IVF.
Although initially a sci-fi concept, preimplantation genetic diagnosis already routinely determines if embroyos are at risk of diseases such as cystic fibrosis in the UK and US. Designer babies are illegal in the UK.
While The Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs supports genetic selection if it benefits a child’s wellbeing, critics argue choosing ‘preferred’ traits that do not boost health is unethical.
Supporters of the practice argue parents can already influence their child’s tastes via lifestyle choices, such as taking them to concerts, and should therefore have the right to ‘prenatal autonomy’.
Most infants will be ‘designer babies’ in as little as 20 years, a professor claims (stock)
Most wish to leave children’s fate ‘in God’s hands’
Despite Professor Greely’s predictions, Dr Louanne Hudgins, who studies prenatal genetic screening at Stanford, expects only a ‘very small minority’ of parents will want designer babies, with most preferring to leave their fate ‘in God’s hands’.
Dr James Grifo, from the New York University Fertility Center, who has been performing IVF since 1988, added: ‘No patient has ever came to me and said, “I want a designer baby”.’
Professor Greely doubts many parents will wish to influence their child’s intelligence or athleticism, but insists they may want to avoid childhood diseases.
He adds parents will likely have less interest in conditions that typically appear in later life, such as Alzheimer’s.
Critics argue against designer babies
Designer-baby critics argue only wealthy people could likely afford such screening.
In the future, health insurers may also reject patients who have not undergone genetic selection out of concerns they have a higher disease risk.
Dr Louanne Hudgins, who studies prenatal genetic screening and diagnosis at Stanford, adds genetically screening foetuses for diseases is not supported by medical associations and therefore health insurers will unlikely pay for such treatment in the near future.
Parents may also not get the outcomes they were hoping for due to chemical modifications affecting genes after embryos are implanted in the uterus.
Critics add people’s upbringings and life experiences also have a substantial impact on traits such as intelligence.
Dr Richard Scott Jr, a founding partner of Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey, added: ‘Your child may not turn out to be the three-sport All-American at Stanford.’
Fertility technique could cause celebrities to unwittingly become parents
Designer babies aside, Professor Greely is developing a technology that enables ordinary cells to be transformed into sperm or eggs.
Although only done in mice to date, the technique may benefit infertile couples if eggs could be produced from, for example, a woman’s skin cells.
Professor Greely envisions the method could yield hundreds of eggs, which may be screened for genetic traits before couples choose one or two to implant.
Dr Amander Clark, from the University of California, LA, believes the technique may enable people who are infertile due to cancer treatments to become parents.
Critics of Professor Greely’s vision argue obsessive celebrity fans may unwittingly turn stars into parents if they collect skin cells from, for instance, a discarded coffee cup.