I searched Google for controversial news, and one of the first things that came up was Designer Babies. I apologize if this thread has been started before, I searched and couldn't find it.

Designer Babies - Wikipedia

The colloquial term "designer baby" has been used in popular scientific and bioethics literature to specify a child whose hereditary makeup (genotype) would be, using various reproductive and genetic technologies, purposefully selected ("designed") to be the optimal recombination of their parents' genetic material. The term is usually used pejoratively to signal opposition to such use of human biotechnologies.[1]

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Currently, the only approved Design-A-Baby is choosing a babies sex. To to that, they remove the egg from the woman and take a sperm sample from the man. Then they go through the man's sperm to find the one that would create a male/female baby, combine the two, and implant them back into the woman.

They also use the same process to screen eggs and sperm for possible genetic disorders, and discard the faulty sperm or egg.

In the future, they hope to be able to replace strands of DNA to create "Your prefect fetus" whether it be a blonde haired, blue eyed muscular build or a string bean kid that's not well endowed with bad eyes.

My question to you is this: Should people be allowed to alter nature to create the child of their dreams, or should we just rely on chance the way we used to? Why?

Discuss away.

no no no no no!
its the individuals of the world that make it different so why give people the chance to make everybody the same and be good looking, tall dark handsome etc etc...
it has its good points but at the end of the day if everybody chose to have a baby girl how would the world keep going?

I say let nature take its corse. There is no reason or means behind this. no one is perfect, and thats the beauty of it all. I like the elment of surprize. Why would i want to create a child just the way i want it to look? its pointless. The point of having children is to create a human being that is a part of you, and the person you love, and your family, Its not about picking and choosing what exact this and that you want your child to have. I think being diffrent from all the rest makes someone unqiue.

Wow, that's is horriable. I wouldn't want to know that my parents wanted me a certain way! I say you get what you get. I wouldn't want to do that.

i dont agree with creating a baby to look a certain way,
but i am fine with the idea of a baby/embro/fetus being screaned to check if it compatable with a older sibling with an incurable illness, for a bone marrow transplant etc.

Quoting x x madii x x:“ i dont agree with creating a baby to look a certain way, but i am fine with the idea of a baby/embro/fetus ... [snip!] ... being screaned to check if it compatable with a older sibling with an incurable illness, for a bone marrow transplant etc.”

There's a book about that... I think it's called 'My Sister's Keeper.'

Pretty much, the parents had another child so they could use the second child's bone marrow to help with the first child's leukemia. I personally think thats sick and horrible. How do you think that second child will feel?

I think if you have a second child for the sole purpose of fixing the first... It's incredibly sick.

I said for the SOLE purpose. And, I think even if it's the majority of the reason. Hm.

Sick...
and so typical!

Quoting .CharlotteAmber.:“ no no no no no! its the individuals of the world that make it different so why give people the chance ... [snip!] ... etc... it has its good points but at the end of the day if everybody chose to have a baby girl how would the world keep going?”

It is not mentioned in the OP (as far as I have read at the moment) but what about people that have a 50/50 chance of having a child with a certian disease? I mean, this could be a good thing. I do not however think that they should alter the DNA at all.

I don't think anyone should alter the way a baby is. I think it's to weird.

Come on ladies, don't more people have opinions on this?

Quoting Dr. Jekyll:“ There's a book about that... I think it's called 'My Sister's Keeper.' Pretty much, the parents had ... [snip!] ... the first... It's incredibly sick. I said for the SOLE purpose. And, I think even if it's the majority of the reason. Hm.”

i think that if it was me and i knew i had been born not only to be loved but also so i could save the life of my elder brother/sister it would make me feel so special, that i had been born with a purpose.

Quoting Dr. Jekyll:“ Come on ladies, don't more people have opinions on this?”

Ok, I'll go. I can see how being able to prevent severe disabilities through this method could be beneficial. If there were a genetic disease in my family, and I thought I could prevent it then by all means I would do it and not feel guilty.

But I can't see myself ever, regardless of how much money I had, going to a specialist in order to have a blue eyed baby, or a baby that is tall, pretty, strong,etc. I can't imagine this being a good thing for our society.

Quoting x x madii x x:“ i think that if it was me and i knew i had been born not only to be loved but also so i could save ... [snip!] ... i could save the life of my elder brother/sister it would make me feel so special, that i had been born with a purpose. ”

I personally would feel used and disregarded if the only reason I was born was to save my older sister's life... That I was born so my organs and cells could be harvested to go to some one else.

Eh... Maybe I'll make that into a different thread. =]

I didn't vote in the poll because it was made too cut and dry. I agree with some others here in that this technology can be used to screen for genetic diseases, and this is a good thing. To use it for vanity reasons like eye color is dumb.

On choosing a baby's sex.....obviously some diseases are sex-linked so to benefit the baby's health you might choose girl or boy. But in countries where boys are preferred... it could lead to an imbalance. What would happen to a country where there are loads more boys than girls? Would that improve a woman's position in the country or make it even worse? If people got the boy they wanted then you wouldn't have unwanted baby girls being mistreated or killed, but I could also see a scenario where the girls are treated even more like property because there would be so few of them. Of course in this country there are people like one of my relatives that keep having babies because they want a girl... even though theyhave a hard time taking care of the boys they already have. Personally, a baby's sex means nothing to me, so I would never do it.

One of the other posters mentioning having a baby to save another chid's life. I can't comment on this because I feel that until I'm in that position myself, I can't pass judgement. I do know that after we lost our son my husband and I really wanted to try for another baby. My husband fears that when my daughter grows up, she will feel like she was 2nd best, because if Jonathan would have lived, she wouldn't be here. No one I know tells me that I love my daughter any less or that she is serving as a replacement for my son, or faults me for conceiving her. Is my story really that different than someone who has a child to bring the gift of life to another? I don't know....

I dont think it's right but I know someone who's doing it. He's paying 4000 Euro to make sure his wife has a boy this time.