By Philip Sherwell and New York
A LOS Angeles fertility clinic is offering to design a baby to the parents' exact requirements.
The Fertility Institutes' clinic service gives the chance to select physical traits through "cosmetic medicine". Prospective parents can request a son with brown eyes, black hair and a dark complexion, or a pale, blonde, green-eyed daughter.
Medical screening of embryos is now being used to identify cosmetic traits.Credit: Michele Mossop
Other fertility specialists are outraged that the clinic is seeking to capitalise on advances in embryo cell analysis aimed at identifying dangerous diseases and defects in the unborn.
They claimed that the "bespoke baby" in-vitro fertilisation service is distracting public attention from the way medical technology can produce children free of debilitating genetic conditions.
But the clinic's director, Jeff Steinberg, who was in the team involved in the birth in Britain in 1978 of Louise Brown, the world's first test tube baby, is undeterred. "I live in LA and everyone here wants to have a straight nose and high cheekbones and are perfectly happy to pay for cosmetic surgery," he said.
"I understand the trepidation and concerns, but we cannot escape the fact that science is moving forward. If I have to get smacked around by people who think it is inappropriate, then I'm willing to live with that."
Dr Steinberg's clinic, already the world's largest provider of gender choice, has had "five or six" requests from couples for the new service, which involves embryo selection not genetic modification.
He expects the first "trait selection" baby to be born next year. The cost for the process will be about $US18,000 ($A28,000).
It is based on pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD, which has for several years allowed doctors to identify potentially lethal diseases or conditions in embryos.
Yet scientists have recently made dramatic advances in their ability to analyse a cell. At a meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics last year, William Kearns, a medical geneticist, said that he had been able to get enough DNA from a cell to identify thousands of characteristics of the embryo. Dr Kearns explained the technique for medical use, but Dr Steinberg quickly spotted other potential.
He said parents might seek the clinic's services for medical or cosmetic reasons. Some couples might already have a child with a skin cancer and want their next baby to have a darker complexion.
His proposal to offer trait selection has outraged Dr Kearns. "Steinberg has jumped on my research but I'm totally against this," he said. "My goal is to screen embryos to help couples have healthy babies free of genetic diseases. Traits are not diseases."
Mark Hughes, one of the pioneers of PGD, said: "It's ridiculous and irresponsible. There are thousands of desperate couples who have no hope of having healthy children without this technology, and here we are talking about this."
Marcy Darnovsky, director of the Centre for Genetics and Society, said: "The concern is that we'll be creating a society with new sorts of discrimination. Now it's eye and hair colour. What happens if it's height and intelligence? Some parents may have qualms, but still feel under pressure."
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