LA, Manhattan Clinics Offering 'Designer Babies'

March 3, 2009 8:08 a.m. EST

Miami, FL (AHN) - A doctor who owns fertility clinics in Manhattan and Los Angeles said that within six months, he plans to let potential parents choose many of their babies' features.

Dr. Jeff Steinberg, owner of the LA Fertility Institute, said that traits like eye, hair and even skin color will soon be a matter of his customers' choice. Steinberg was one of the innovators of the test tube baby in the 1970s.

He said the technology used at his clinics is not 100 percent perfect, and that parents with Scandinavian heritage will likely have the best results.

Steinberg is not without his critics, who worry his technology could lead to the desire to create a "master race" of babies.

Dr. Gillian Lockwood, a UK fertility expert and member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' ethics committee, told the BBC that she questions whether it is morally right to use science this way.

"If it gets to the point where we can decide which gene or combination of genes are responsible for blue eyes or blonde hair, what are you going to do with all those other embryos that turn out like me to be ginger with green eyes," Lockwood said.

Lockwood said Steinberg's clinics could lead to "turning babies into commodities that you buy off the shelf."