Fertility Clinic Bows To Pressure, Nixes Eye- and Hair-Color Screening 847
destinyland writes "A fertility service in L.A. and New York screens embryos for breast cancer, cystic fibrosis, and 70 other diseases — and lets couples pick the sex of their babies. But when their pre-implantation diagnostic services began including the baby's eye and hair color, even the Pope objected — and the Great Designer Baby Controversy began. '[W]e cannot escape the fact that science is moving forward,' the fertility service explained — before capitulating to pressure to eliminate the eye and hair color screenings."
lawsuit (Score:5, Funny)
Would you have been able to sue them if your baby had blond hair when you wanted a brunette?
"No honey, of course mommy and daddy love you just the way you are... never mind the settlement we got because your hair color is wrong. It paid for all this dye!"
The article (Score:2, Funny)
orange straight hair
big brain
talks alot
will need glasses
and have blue eyes.
OMG, It's almost CARROT TOP!
Heavy Metal Baby (Score:4, Funny)
The Line Goes here (Score:5, Funny)
Well, I've always wondered where the line would be drawn, and it's apparently at eye and hair color. To sum up, designing a baby to be resistant to over 70 diseases is cool - and designing a baby to be a particular sex is also cool. But choosing hair color or eye color, that goes to far.
If someone didn't draw the line for me, I'd never know where it goes. I've never been good at placing arbitrary restrictions on things I don't understand, so thank God for the Pope.
Re:what is the big deal? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:It's not the eye color screening that bugs me (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It's not the eye color screening that bugs me (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, and the white ones fetch a higher price on the black market.
Does that mean that the black ones fetch a higher price on the white market?
Re:It's not the eye color screening that bugs me (Score:3, Funny)
That's such a delta thing to do. Sheesh.
Re:An Ethical Quandry without an easy answer (Score:5, Funny)
'By acting as a god, you play god, even if you don't think any gods exist. You can play Satan too if you wished to. Or Sauron for that matter.'
At least you can always tell when the parents have played Sauron ('The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing' - this is never a good look, and little Pharazon will be mercilessly bullied at school). Don't even ask about the hair colour...
Re:The article (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, except the big brain thing. ;)
Re:An Ethical Quandry without an easy answer (Score:3, Funny)
At least you can always tell when the parents have played Sauron ('The Eye was rimmed with fire, but was itself glazed, yellow as a cat's, watchful and intent, and the black slit of its pupil opened on a pit, a window into nothing' - this is never a good look, and little Pharazon will be mercilessly bullied at school).
I wouldn't worry about that. Personally I was able to avoid a lot of bullying by seeming just crazy enough that I might snap. Give me eyes with pupils that open on a pit to nothing, and I could have parlayed that into never getting hassled.
No, I think little Saury's (get it, "sorry"? like "sorry i'm evil and crushed your people"?) biggest problem will be with the ladies. As in creeping them the hell out. But on the other hand, some women like the dark and dangerous type.
Re:It's not the eye color screening that bugs me (Score:4, Funny)
No, people have cared about getting laid since the beginning of time. Survival of our genes is just a side effect.
Re:An Ethical Quandry without an easy answer (Score:3, Funny)
'But on the other hand, some women like the dark and dangerous type.'
I guess the popularity of the whole 'Twilight' might work in your favour. On the other hand, any budding Dark Lord would probably have to work on his dating skills ('Then Morgoth looking upon her beauty conceived in his thought an evil lust, and a design more dark then any that had yet come into his heart since he fled from Valinor' - not exactly dinner and a movie, is it?).
Re:It's not the eye color screening that bugs me (Score:4, Funny)
Nor would Hellen Keller who was blinded and deafened by (probably) Scarlet Fever
I was blinded and deafened by Disco Fever. Never look directly into the glittery ball, they told me. But did I listen? No. I was already deaf. The Bee Gees took care of that.
Re:It's not the eye color screening that bugs me (Score:5, Funny)
To be fair, not everyone wants children, including myself.
Actually about half the worlds population would rather not have children, and the other half are women.