Genetics Company Awarded Patent for System to Create Designer Babies

Wednesday, October 9. 2013

Genetics Company Awarded Patent for System to Create Designer Babies

This week the genetics world exploded with discussion about a new patent just issued by the U.S. Patent Office to a California company, 23andMe. 23andMe is a direct-to-consumer genetic testing company that offers genetic information to anyone who sends in a saliva sample and a fee.

23andMe was offered a patent on their inheritance calculator, a feature where prospective parents can figure out the likely traits their children will have. The controversy surrounds the patent's extension into the fertility industry where this technology could be used to screen donor egg and sperm to create a child with desired physical attributes.

Nature reports some of the options listed in the patent:

Figure 4 of the patent application lists the following alternative choices: “I prefer a child with”: “longest expected life span”/“least expected life cost of health care”/“least expected cumulative duration of hospitalization.” Figure 6 visualizes a choice between the “offspring’s possible traits” of “0% likely endurance athlete” and “100% likely sprinter.”

Continue reading at LifeNews>>

Posted by Rebecca Taylor in Reproductive Technologies at 16:19 | Comment (1) | Trackbacks (0)

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Why does research focus on ESC's when ASC's show so much promise? It must be because, if someone receives an ESC transplant, drug companies would have them as a paying customer for life for expensive rejection drugs. If the transplant were from the recipient's own tissue, this would not be an issue.

#1 Northerner on 2013-10-09 19:09 (Reply)

It may also be so that they don't feel that abortion, which is where they get most ESCs, are a "waste". The utilitarian argument against the death penalty, as presented by Bentham, is that a dead man is not very useful.

Genetics Company Awarded Patent for System to Create Designer Babies

Mary Meets Dolly

Wednesday, October 9. 2013

Genetics Company Awarded Patent for System to Create Designer Babies

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