Ethics of Designer Babies

A designer baby is a baby genetically engineered in vitro [5] for specially selected traits, which can vary from lowered disease-risk to gender selection. Before the advent of genetic engineering and in vitro [5] fertilization [6] (IVF), designer babies were primarily a science fiction concept. However, the rapid advancement of technology before and after the turn of the twenty-first century makes designer babies an increasingly real possibility. As a result, designer babies have become an important topic in bioethical debates, and in 2004 the term ?designer baby? even became an official entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. Designer babies represent an area within embryology [7] that has not yet become a practical reality, but nonetheless draws out ethical concerns about whether or not it will become necessary to implement limitations regarding designer babies in the future.