Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Old women and New babies

drawing by marguerita
If this trend is not scary, what else is?
IVF is already 30 years old, growing healthier, more successful and more popular. It provides the best mean of having a child especially by working couples in big cities who delay their marriage or are childless.
If human embryos can be made from skin cells and grown in culture (thus devoid of moral issues), people can have any number of children at any age.
Unfortunately, only those specialists who possess the knowledge, the know-how, and the technology will have the full control of the process; others will be subjected to their whims and idiosyncrasies. And precisely, this is the threatening part.
If a few power crazy experts decide to monopolize the special skills and determine to create thousands of children on their own terms and conditions, the world could be in trouble. I would not want to imagine the consequences.
Would you?
(Tan Boon Tee)
Access : Making babies: the next 30 years : Nature News

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