With my first child, the OB talked me out of the test for Down’s Syndrome. “Unless you are certain what you’ll do, one way or another,” she said, “the test will only cause confusion.” I wasn’t certain. A friend of mine, however, was certain. Carrying twins, she was told that one had Down’s and the other did not. She carried both to term and guess what? Two amazing, healthy, ‘normal’ baby boys.

Designer Babies: Coming Soon to a Womb Near You

Leading geneticists now predict that “designer babies,” screened to lack faulty genes, will be all the rage in the 2010s. Parents-to-be will have greater information available to weed out substandard embryos as the scientific community digs deeper into the genetic roots of disease. This according to David Goldstein, of Duke University in North Carolina.

Over the next decade researchers expect to nail down the genetic sources of diabetes, heart disease, and psychiatric disorders. Dr. Goldstein predicts we will be able to screen for autism by 2020. Because we’ll be able to see these flaws at the embryonic stage, screening will grow in popularity. On the topic of the future of screening, Dr. Goldstein says:

The identification of major risk factors for disease is bound to substantially increase interest in embryonic and other screening programmes. Society has largely already accepted this principle for mutations that lead inevitably to serious health conditions. Will it be so accommodating of those who want to screen out embryos that carry, say, a twentyfold increased risk of a serious but unspecified neuropsychiatric disease?

One example of a neuropsychiatric disease is eating disorders. Once we start choosing embryos based on little Susie’s propensity for sticking her finger down her throat to make the gymnastics team, I don’t think it’s a big leap to selecting genes that produce those cool violet eyes. I’m not sure that’s where we want to let this thing go. Then again, eczema is pretty inconvenient. Maybe we could screen for that.

We should think about an appropriate dividing line. Most people are in favour of allowing this when a disease is severe, but are more uncomfortable with marginal disease risks. It’s something we are going to have to think hard about.

I wonder who exactly is going to do this thinking?

Embryo Screening In Vitro

According to the article, to have an embryo screened, it must be created by in-vitro fertilization. It is then grown to eight cells, a couple are removed and tested, and only the ‘normal’ embryos are placed into the womb.

Did you ever read that book Brave New World? Because take out that last step and we’re just about there. This technique of embryo screening can also be used to ‘create’ a child to be a perfect donor match to a sibling. (Jodi Picoult wrote about it in My Sister’s Keeper.)

What would you choose? That’s not really the question. The questions are these:

1. When will people like me lose the option of NOT screening? And
2. When will people like my friend lose the ability to choose for themselves?