Designer Baby Company Files Patents
23andMe.Com has just been granted patents to what amounts to a designer baby system. The patent allows for the following:
The patent describes a technology that would take a customer’s preferences for a child’s traits, compute the likely genomic outcomes of combinations between a customer’s sperm or egg and other people’s sex cells, and describe which potential reproductive matches would most likely produce the desired baby.
Among the traits listed in the application as examples of possible choice are: height, weight, hair color, risks of colorectal cancer and congenital heart defects, expected life span, expected lifetime health care costs, and athleticism.
23andMe say they have no plans to actually offer this service, saying it would be irresponsible of them. They just filed the patent for the off chance on a rainy day they decide to make a master race of super children.
Read more at wired.com
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