Happy Birthday!

Posted by Pete Shanks July 25, 2008
Biopolitical Times

Thirty years ago today, the first IVF baby was born. Her name is Louise Brown, and she is now a mother who generally prefers to stay out of the spotlight, so let us just wish her a very happy birthday.

This date also marks the birth of the modern assisted-reproduction industry, which has grown into a multi-billion-dollar business. Naturally, many of its practitioners are happy to mark the anniversary.

Nature went further, producing a special feature [subscription required] looking forward 30 years, including such gems as Davor Solter predicting that 100-year-old women will give birth and that that research on embryos "would mean you could introduce any kind of genetic modification." An editorial clearly endorsed inheritable genetic modification: It envisages a scenario where "the door would open wider to allow genetic enhancement and modification of germ cells and embryos." It also imagined a couple in 2038 who "chose this particular embryo [because she] had the best odds of growing up to be thin, happy and cancer-free ..."

In the same issue, however, there is Ruth Deech, the former chair of Britain's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, saying: "In the United States, assisted reproduction is nearly an unregulated black market, guided by toothless 'rules' from non-regulatory bodies." Debora Spar, President of Barnard College and author of The Baby Business, agrees that "This is a $3 billion market without any established framework." In the New York Times Magazine last Sunday, Peggy Orenstein, who has written about her own experience with assisted reproduction, gently suggests: "A bit of mandatory reining in might not be a bad thing."

This kind of constructive criticism -- from supporters of assisted reproduction -- does seem to be gaining traction. That's a good sign. But calling for designer babies is a move in the wrong direction.

Previously on Biopolitical Times: