Slippery Slope?

May 17, 2006

AFP reports that couples from a number of countries are coming to the US in order to select the sex of their children. The article reviews some common objections to sex selection — embryos of the wrong sex are destroyed, it could create sex ratio imbalances, it could lead to designer babies — and a fertility doctor, Jeffrey Steinberg, who offers sex selection responds, or to quote the article, “dismisses the three-pronged criticism.” He asserts that most embryos are left frozen, not destroyed, and, taken as a whole, his clients are evenly split on the sex they select. Finally, Steinberg says, “We are not moving in the direction of designer babies or cloning at all. People have been warning of that slippery slope since the first in-vitro baby was born more than 25 years ago, but we haven’t gone down it yet.”

Well, that’s very interesting, coming, as it does, on the heels of news that Britain’s HFEA is now allowing pre-implantation screening for genes that raise the risk of adulthood cancers, a slide down the slope from allowing screening for fatal childhood diseases. Also of note on this topic, is a film airing on PBS entitled “Frozen Angels” (check your local listings, set your TiVo). If you follow the link, notice the quote on the opening page:

Redesigning humans . . . that’s really what we’re about to embark upon.
    — Dr. Gregory Stock, UCLA School of Medicine

The future of scientifically created humans is here today, and Los Angeles is at the epicenter for reproductive technology.

From sperm bank presidents and expectant surrogate mothers to gene designers and grown up designer babies, FROZEN ANGELS explores L.A.’s booming business of buying and selling DNA and the moral, ethical and legal dilemmas of this new frontier.

Kind of hard to square these two views, isn’t it? I’m afraid that Dr. Steinberg is mistaken.