I don't think they do it by trial and error, if they do then that's a really stupid thing to do. I think they just make the one embryo and turn the appropriate gene switches for the desired results.

I can see the perks of this kind of technology if it eliminated hereditary diseases or what not...
But for cosmetic and gender reasons? Waste of fucking time and money.

I'd rather be surprised at what my child would look like. The only genetic screening I would do for my child are cancer traits or other bad genetic traits they could get in their lifetime.

I wouldn't do this for gender reasons...or to pick and choose what my child looked like. The only reason I like the technology is because...it would be nice if we could eliminate certain things...like cancer and so forth.

Like Blue Bella said...if the technology could elimate hereditary diseases and all those sorts of things...if we could get rid of certain...illness, disease, genetic issues...then I'm all for it. But picking and choosing children....thats just a step too far. Do it for the right reasons, not the selfish reason.

What. The. Fuck?

This is absolutely disgusting. I would much rather be surprised about what my child looks like. Because guess what? Now this will be shocking to most....but you will think that your child is the most beautiful child in the world.....why fuck with that? It's a gift. Not something to have for "bragging" rights. This is disgusting.

The thing is though that for some people being able to choose their babies gender would be able to eliminate hereditary diseases, for example having all girls if your family has a serious history of prostate cancer with a genetic link. The same is true for a fair few other genetic conditions, where only one gender is affected. Then I can completely understand why you'd choose your babies sex.
However, choosing it for purely superficial reasons is pretty awful to me, and if allowed is a step to far. It's amazing what technology can do though.

Designer babies have never really bothered me. Each to their own. Don't know if I'd do it.
A baby born in the UK earlier this year was considered to be the first genetically modified baby, as she was modified to be born without the breast cancer gene that runs in her family. Using it for those means can only be good.

So you can't have a child without aborting many embryo's, how about adopting instead of killing!

That's not actually true for some people, I was one of the first IVF babies EVER and all of my mums embryos got implanted, none were "killed" but that was my mums personal choice, she was just lucky she only got one baby out of it I guess!
I suppose it would be fairly different now, but technology is fairly advanced and I'm sure they're not going to take out ridiculous amounts of embryos! They’re only going to take out what they need and then the person (I assume) gets given the choice what they want to do with them. I know my mum was given the choice to; freeze for future use, donate the eggs to mothers who can’t have babies naturally or have the rest implanted. She just chose to have the rest implanted and none developed.

i wouldn't use it.

Sure the technology is amazing... but... I think we've messed with natural selection a little too much already, no?
Guess not.

I wouldn't use it but I know people that would if they had the money.
My sister had 4 girls in the hopes of getting ONE boy and her husband ended up getting a vasectomy so she would stop trying. She's the kind of person that would choose the sex, but I don't know anyone that would go so far as picking hair colour and such. I think that's going to far.

I could understand gender. I mean, my boyfriend is the last male in his bloodline, if he doesn't have any sons, his last name ends with him. That's tremendous pressure for some guys, and not having a son would make them feel like a failure. Like if we had had two girls, and were trying for a third? I don't want to mess with genetics as to how they look, but I could definitely understand why people might select gender.

Is your boyfriend the only son? I could see that putting a lot of pressure on him.

Yeah, only son, only nephew, lol. It's quite intense.

Let's be honest, surely there are enough idiots in the world already without making more?!
So I think selecting based on intelligence (if there could ever be such a thing) is a good excuse also ;D

The problem with that is it doesn't matter how much brain power you were born with. If your parents don't teach you how to use it, it's useless and you become an idiot ANYWAY. ;-)

Ahh yeah, that and education.

Hmm... so we should stop idiots from reproducing, that would work, no?! Haha.

I don't think it would. Because even idiots can give birth to brilliant children. It's all in the upbringing. I've known some very intelligent people who gave birth to children who while children were very bright, but thanks to the parents those children grew up to be dolts. Unfortunately, you just can't predict which parent is going to raise a child to be intelligent. ;-)

I can't believe people are down-talking this. I can customize my phone, and my computer, and my car, and my home. Now my children? Hell fucking yeah.

Personally I can see why people would want to use this sort of technology to prevent your child getting an inherited disease. I'm not just talking about cancer but other really horrendous diseases like Huntingtons. I know that if I carried the gene for something like that I would not want my child to get it.

As for eye colour, gender or whatever, I think that's ridiculous and innappropriate use of the technology.

Didn't we learn enough about this stuff from our non-human meddling? For instance, we messed around with vegetables, and after all of that effort we now find ourselves having to pay more for the organic (aka natural) stuff? How ironic...but we think that meddling with babies is going to turn out better in the long run? And I also agree with whoever said in a prior post that we are screwing around too much with the natural selection.

I'D GET A GENDERLESS GREEN-SKINNED BABY WITH PINK HAIR AND PURPLE EYES, YO.

It really doesn't bother me. I have no need for IVF and never really cared what colour my kids hair or eyes were but if I ever did have IVF and choosing blond hair and blue eyes was an option then why not? It won't effect their features or their personalities!! It would still look like me and my partner! Each to their own; if people want to spend their money on choosing the gender, hair or eye colour of their child then why not, I can think of PLENTY worse things going on in the world right now!!! And as for God blessed us with a baby we should be happy with what we have, 'God' blessed us with the brains and ability to make this possible!!!

I guess my religous beliefs are the biggest reason I say do not mess with stuff like that. Also, it's not the parents decision how the child turns out. What if the child wants to be a brunette instead of a blonde, and the parents paid to have a blonde headed child? It's the child's life, not the parents. Things like that shouldn't be put in the hands of human beings it's a much greater being than us that decides on things like that and I think Ill be leaving the decision making up to the one who makes the little miracles happen.