Tonight on 'Nightline' Thursday, Feb. 22, 2007 — Buying a Baby? Tonight, a look at a new and controversial fertility treatment for couples who have run out of options. The Abraham Center of Life claims to be the world's first donor-created human embryo bank. Using sperm donors with PhD's and egg donor who are young and "attractive," the center offers an alternative for infertile women who want to experience a pregnancy and increase their odds of carrying a child to term. It may be cheaper than IVF or adoption, but experts say the practice comes perilously close not only to buying a baby, but to designing one for sale. ABC's JuJu Chang reports. Thought this one might be good for a post or two. Anything wrong with buying embryos "made" from good-looking, PhD.-caliber parents?
yikes. another challenge to medical ethics... personally, i wouldn't want anything to do with it. and a phd is more a measure of bullheadedness than intelligence...
This has been going on for as long as there have been sperm banks. The only difference is now you get to choose the mother's genes, too.
How long until we can custom order whatever attributes we want over the net? 'Designer genes' takes on a whole new meaning.
This has been going on for a lot longer than sperm banks... Individuals "custom design" their children's genes when they chose a mate. Darwin had it right for animals - survival of the fittest. When we started with IVF, it simply expanded the options for some people - Someone who maybe wasn't able to "hook up" with the town football star could still get his sperm. For me, the issue isn't in choosing the biological parents - It's in the fact that they're actually growing embryos for the procedure.
