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When faced with having a baby with a fatal bone marrow disorder or damaged heart, most prospective parents naturally want to avoid the problem. Increasingly they can. Advances in technology allow doctors to screen embryos in the lab and choose one most likely to be healthy—in other words, one free of gene mutations known to cause disease.
Down the road, genetic previews could let parents customize their children in the womb. Some say it's inevitable that we'll move beyond fixing genetic disorders to creating children with stronger muscles, better memories, and finer singing voices. But aesthetic enhancements like hair color and height may upstage fighting disease. And we could risk creating a genetic underclass of people who can't afford to change their genes.
Critics warn that altering one genetic "problem" could have a ripple effect. Fixing the mutation for sickle cell anemia, for instance, might alter a person's resistance to malaria. Some experts warn that we should go easy on our genes until we have a better understanding of how they interact and function.
Some possible future genetic enhancements parents may be able to choose for their children include:
- Reduced risk of nicotine addiction
- Will be resistant to AIDS
- Reduced susceptibility to measles
- Will have brown eyes
- Propensity toward music
- Reduced risk of Parkinson's Disease
- Will have good coordination
- Will have straight hair
- Reduced susceptibility to vertigo
- Reduced susceptibility to cavities
- Reduced risk of breast cancer
- Reduced risk of Alzheimer's Disease
- Will need less sleep
- Propensity toward math
- Reduced susceptibility to alcoholism
- Reduced risk of cataracts
- Will have brown hair
- Reduced susceptibility to tendonitis
- Reduced risk of schizophrenia
- Will have curly hair
- Reduced risk of gum disease
- Will have blue eyes
- Reduced risk of brain cancer
- Will be at least six feet tall
- Reduced risk of prostate cancer
- Will have thick eyelashes
- Reduced susceptibility to psoriasis
- Reduced risk of lymphoma
- Will have red hair
- Reduced susceptibility to autism
- Reduced risk of diabetes
- Will have thick hair
- Reduced susceptibility to asthma
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