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The convention hall at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine's 2007 annual meeting, in Washington, D.C., looked like a luxury shopping mall of futuristic baby making.
Company reps held court in brightly colored booths, luring potential customers with bowls of candy and hoping to sell cutting-edge baby-making technology.
Just down the hall, conferees packed a seminar room to hear a talk titled "From Cells to Super Babies." By spending staggering amounts of money, as much as $100,000, picky parents would soon be able to design superior physical, mental and psychological attributes for their babies-to-be, the audience learned.
"Doctors, attorneys and mental-health professionals are all picking and choosing each and every genetic component in order to build a super baby," says Elaine Gordon, a clinical psychologist who specializes in counseling on such issues. "One day you'll be able to select for sex, hair color, confidence index, whether they are an optimist or pessimist, whether they are an athlete or a bookworm."
That future may be closer then we think. Thanks in part to people choosing...