Last week we were all horrified at the news that an American clinic, The Fertility Institutes, would allow parents to "design" the physical appearance of their future children through preimplantation genetic diagnosis, a technique based on embryo selection.
Following the controversy generated, the clinic has decided to suspend the "Babies on demand" service, keeping it only in the case of specific disorders such as albinism or other genetic disorders of skin or eye pigmentation.
Of course, we will always have the doubt of whether it has been an advertising maneuver or they announce they suspend the service but in reality they do not. The important thing is that the general reaction has been of deep rejection of the idea of creating "cosmetic babies."
Recall that the preimplantation genetic diagnosis consists of an embryo selection technique by which each embryo is analyzed to detect diseases of genetic origin and implant those that are free of them in the mother's womb.
Many of us consider this technique as a great advance in reproductive medicine capable of saving lives, however when it comes to choosing an eye color, a certain hair color or height, we consider it a genetic aberration that we hope will not prosper.
In most European countries, this practice has been given the green light only for health reasons, without justification for other reasons where the choice of physical appearance comes into play. However, this prohibition does not exist in the United States.
I fear that unfortunately the birth of babies on demand is only a matter of time. I wish I was wrong.
