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Embryo #30 Female
- Higher than average risk of a cleft
- Lower than average risk of autism and ADHD
- Brown hair, green eyes
- Expected career paths: lawyer, politician, police officer
Embryo #58 Male
- Lower than average risk of cystic fibrosis
- Blond hair blue eyes
- 60% chance of above-average school grades
The future of designer babies may look something like this. You may remember a scenario like this from the satirical novel Brave New World.
Designer babies are foetuses that have been selected for implantation due to what genes they have. This is a process that is currently used in genetic screening to eradicate defects particularly those which are hereditary.
However, there is a worry that this will be extended to choose all genes, not just those that aren’t defective but genes that determine eye and hair colour as well as the chance of a high IQ, and possibly a race of superhumans will be born.
So the question is where do we draw the line?
if you found out your parents had edited your genes to decide your hair colour would you be annoyed? would you feel the same if they had been edited to prevent you from developing a life-limiting condition? Would you edit your child’s genes and if so what would you change?
If you found out your parents used gene editing to decide your eye colour, would you be annoyed? would you feel the same way if they had used it to stop you from developing a life-limiting condition? would you use it on your children and, if so, what for?