Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Design your Own Baby?

eugenicsThanks to The Fertility Institute, children of the future will actually be able to blame their parents for everything that’s wrong with them. Can you imagine? “Mom, I have a zit! Why didn’t you design me so I wouldn't have acne?”

That’s right... DESIGN. The Fertility Institute in New Orleans uses science called Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis (PGD), which not only allows doctors to eliminate certain diseases like Down Syndrome and muscular dystrophy, but gives parents the option to choose their baby’s sex, eye colour, hair colour, and even skin colour. Creepy!

What’s next? Putting calculators and CD Roms in their brains? How about wings? No, no! The ability to live forever! Muahahaha!

Actually, come to think of it, if you could be born without any defects (well, at least that’s the hope), that would probably mean living a lot longer.

But design your own baby? That sounds like some kind of sick Frankenstein creation, and we all know how well that turned out. Not that I wouldn’t want to be able to fly or anything; the whole thing is just really weird. And isn’t it a slap in the face to all of us who were born like normal people, with flaws and quirks and all that? What, we’re not good enough?

And, now that I think of it (while watching a make-over show no less), with the standard “ideals” our society holds, wouldn’t everyone be born – or, emerge from a glass jar – looking and acting the same?

Yep, that’s one giant leap for semi-humankind.

(Image: Sebastian Niedlich (Grabthar) How perfect is that?)

3 comments:

  1. This was a very entertaing post! I saw something regarding this new hybrid baby on the MSNBC website this morning- SO creepy. It is also crazy how advanced humankind wants to get, to the point where humans will no longer be naturally conceived. This though makes me really nervous, because with every great invention will come some kind of problem- but what will that problem be? I guess we will have to wait to see!

    ReplyDelete
  2. No doubt. It seems we're too smart for our own good sometimes. But like you said, who knows what will happen?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gotta say, that's pretty creepy. Any idea how the skin coloration thing works? I'm assuming it's based on the genetics of the parents, obviously, but what if you want a mixed-looking baby? Does it just alter the skin color or other facial features as well? A mixed race child with exclusively white skin or something would look really unnatural.

    ReplyDelete