Fertility Doc Won't Do Eye and Hair Gene Designing... Yet!

Yesterday's story about a fertility doctor's plan to help parents choose the eye and hair color of their babies triggered "a flood of calls" from would-be procreators eager for designer infants. But doctor Jeff Steinberg is still at least six months away from offering the service, and in a follow-up he tells the Daily News that for now, "We're going to limit it to people with genetic diseases because we just cannot keep up with what's going on." His institute also pulled an announcement about the controversial service from the website; the ad trumpeted: "PREDICTIVE GENOMICS TO BE AVAILABLE: Eye color, hair color, cancer tendency and more." These babies are insaaaaane! Besides offering genetic customization for parents with family histories of albinism and other disorders, Steinberg will still help parents predetermine their child's gender, a service that's already available at other clinics. But really this was all just an excuse to publish this photo of Steinberg, which might provide some clue as to the source of the good doctor's passion for genetic engineering.