Results tagged “fertility”

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.

While the 52-member medical team that delivered a California woman's octuplets earlier this week are being hailed for their skills, medical experts are concerned. Nadya Suleman, 33, already had six children when she decided to be implanted, via in vitro fertilization, with frozen embryos left from previous procedures. NYU Fertility Center program director Dr. James Grifo told CBS News, "I know no physician who would put eight embryos in a patient. We don't do that, because of the risks. Our goal as practitioners is to help patients have a healthy offspring. Single pregnancies, where a single baby is born, are the best outcome. And those alone are risky... But we don't start with in-vitro fertilization treatment... I don't know the story, but it does not make sense...Most of us in this situation, a woman under 35, would only put two embryos back... I don't know people putting six embryos back." Speaking to the LA Times, Suleman's mother said her daughter "is not evil, but she is obsessed with children. She loves children, she is very good with children, but obviously she overdid herself."