Science Fiction…or Mad Scientist?

A fertility doctor recently announced that his methods will allow parents to select traits like eye color. The story is misleading, though. Note that he’s using pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, the procedure that enables him to screen embryos he’s already created in vitro. So, embryos with “undesirable” traits like Down syndrome can be “discarded” (killed). Now, embryos that don’t have the eye color the parents want will meet the same fate.

What it means: The doctor hasn’t developed a new technique for creating embryos with certain characteristics. He’s simply extending the range of traits for which he’ll kill embryos.

One comment

  1. Poor world were life becomes so ordered and shelf produced. If only people knew how random genetic traits really are, they might just be happy with themselves.Still the right for freedom of the individual is still paramount, it is strange to see where it leads us as a whole.doomoftheshem.blogspot.com

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