Designer Babies Take Prenatal Screening Debate One Step Further

A California fertility clinic already allows parents to select their baby’s gender. Now doctors are giving parents the option to choose physical traits like eye and hair color and that’s causing quite a stir.

Already surveys show that parents would choose to screen for disabilities like mental retardation. Critics suggest that allowing parents to chose physical traits may only enhance prejudice in society.

But Dr. Jeffrey Steinberg, who heads the clinic, counters that it is unlikely parents will pursue this technique for vanity alone since it requires in vitro fertilization, which is quite pricey. And, he says, that while parents can indicate preferences for physical appearance, there are no guarantees about the results, reports NBC News.