"Designer babies"--viable business or sci-fi?

[Shredder]

Hey--I'm considering OB but I'm wondering about the state of the "designer baby" business. If it's still too much in its infancy I'll probably rank something else. Basically this comes down to current and future remunerations. Otherwise I'll do Rads or Path. But I like the idea of producing premium quality babies for couples, if they compensate well. I've read books and websites about designing babies but I wanted to ask what's the real deal.

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[chrisisinnocent]

Go into something else ty.

 

[OBandWifey]

LOL...are you serious? If so you might want to go into something else

 

[Shredder]

I'm serious. Please no useless responses or I will ignore you henceforth. IVF and PGD will move in this direction and I am just wondering how far along they are right now. I would anticipate needing some training in medical genetics as well.

 

[THP]

The technology is currently where we can screen for specific defects and choose not to implant those embroys. Nobody wants to pay $20K to get a baby with Tay Sachs or whatever. You can also choose the sex of the baby.

As far as altering the actual base sequence of specific genes to somehow make those genes better - I think that is a long way off.

 

[chrisisinnocent]

I'm serious. Please no useless responses or I will ignore you henceforth. IVF and PGD will move in this direction and I am just wondering how far along they are right now. I would anticipate needing some training in medical genetics as well.

They are nowhere near that yet. We are barely able to do gene therapy in adults much less in an embryo. Also the genes for "performance" are not well described making designer babies an unlikely event any time soon. Since you mentioned remuneration as a big concern of yours stick with rads.

 

[primadonna22274]

Well Shredder, since you asked....
One of my dear friends had a terrible accident last August. She was 39 weeks pregnant, head-on collision. Young woman (24) but tried for 4 years for this baby (married). Uterine rupture, baby died instantly, she had multisystem trauma. Emergency hyst to control the bleeding, were able to save the ovaries.
Now, many months later, her body is healed and she and her husband obsessively still want a baby. My other dear friend has very selflessly volunteered her uterus and after months of priming and getting both girls' cycles together the designer baby doctor (reproductive endo specialist) harvested 13 healthy eggs from momma's ovaries, fertilized all 13 with healthy husband's sperm. Then biopsied every one of the 5-day embryos and rated them in terms of healthiness and vigor. The couple really wants a boy and as it turns out there were 5 healthy boys and 1 healthy girl, the rest were duds, a couple were really wacky (one trisomy). They chose to implant just one, the healthiest boy, into willing friend's primed uterus. Now we see if he grows. This just happened 6 days ago so I guess the embaroo as we're affectionately calling it is now 11 days gestational age. I haven't heard any bad news so I assume all is well. It's a rather complicated procedure that involves daily progesterone injections for the surrogate mother and all kinds of other hormonal shenanigans.
This would be a particularly noble case IMO. The couple doesn't really have much money and has mortgaged their house to pay for this one shot ($35k). If it doesn't work they really don't have more money to keep trying.
Any other case of designer babies I'm diametrically opposed to but you and I can agree to disagree on that one.
L.

 

[Shredder]

Thanks. Gene therapy--yeah that's pretty much still in the scifi stage right now. Screening for more and more things is a first step though. "Performance" is subjective but I was wondering about screening for more concrete things like cancer genes etc. And of course genetic diseases. Remuneration--well I'm passionate about this designer stuff but I have to be practical about it. gtg im in class. enter the dragon

primadonna--that's really cool. I'd be in favor of that for any case but that's not the issue here. I feel like there is potentially a lot of money here

 

[OBGirlie]

Thanks. Gene therapy--yeah that's pretty much still in the scifi stage right now. Screening for more and more things is a first step though. "Performance" is subjective but I was wondering about screening for more concrete things like cancer genes etc. And of course genetic diseases. Remuneration--well I'm passionate about this designer stuff but I have to be practical about it. gtg im in class. enter the dragon

primadonna--that's really cool. I'd be in favor of that for any case but that's not the issue here. I feel like there is potentially a lot of money here

Hopefully there might be some laws in place to prevent "designer babies" other than preventing a Trisomy 18 or something to that effect via IVF. . . you might not want to go into OB soley for the hope that this pans out. You'll have a lot of opposition making it a living nightmare for you to practice if its allowed at all. . . including me :0 Good luck with the match!

 

[amy2003uva]

primadonna--that's really cool. I'd be in favor of that for any case but that's not the issue here. I feel like there is potentially a lot of money here

Quite frankly, I'm disgusted. I don't know how to contribute an answer to your question when your motivations are clearly financially driven. What will you do if you pursue this field and the cash payout isn't what you'd dreamed it would be?

 

[nykka3]

I was just assuming Shredder is a troll or morally inept.... whichever.

 

[primadonna22274]

Nope, he's for real. The Donald used to be his avatar.
Not my cup of tea but to each his/her own....

I was just assuming Shredder is a troll or morally inept.... whichever.

 

[Tausi]

Either way I hope to God he doesn't go into Ob...in fact hoping he gets out of medicine all together to go into something more lucrative not involving human beings! How about investment banking..its not to late to get that MBA!

 

[Shredder]

I'm just different but I wish people would address the designer baby issue. Thanks for the story primadonna, I hope it works out for that person. If it does I think most would agree that the doctor has done tremendous good--and been compensated accordingly. So that's what I'm all about.

 

[primadonna22274]

Happy to share the story Shredder. If you pray to anyone you might say a prayer for this little guy to grow and become a healthy baby.
Now, as far as the designer baby issue, are you talking about picking the baby's eye color, his/her proportions, even selecting for intelligence? Do we even know the gene locus for intelligence? I would think it's greatly polymorphic and incredibly complicated and I submit to you there's a whole lot of nurture vs. nature there. Genetics is fascinating but I'm not sure we know enough to manipulate it a la (oh gosh, what was that movie, it's driving me crazy I can't remember...you know the one I'm talking about). Now, morally I'm opposed to the idea, and I certainly don't want to fund it, but if this is a private venture you're talking about I won't stand in your way. I do think you'll face a lot of uphill opposition in pursuing such a path. There's a lot of misplaced nobility in the Ob/gyn world and a lot of personality pathology too IMO.
Do think about the practical aspects: say you line up some richie-rich clients, and you agree on the perfect baby for them. So you collaborate and this baby is born, then as s/he grows up is different than planned. Exactly what kind of responsibility do you as the "baby designer" have to the parents/clients? Do they have grounds to sue you for failure to deliver what they ordered? What a nightmare that would be. I myself have no interest in that kind of liability.
Curious thoughts though....

I'm just different but I wish people would address the designer baby issue. Thanks for the story primadonna, I hope it works out for that person. If it does I think most would agree that the doctor has done tremendous good--and been compensated accordingly. So that's what I'm all about.

 

[Shredder]

Eventually we will know loci for everything. They're all valid concerns you raise. But any new frontier has concerns. Plus, I'm willing to take on a lot of liability if there is a commensurate reward--and I think in designer babies there is. I'm only about private ventures, I don't plan on taking money from people via public funding. That's why they did away with public funding of stem cells after all (for those morally opposed).

Every burgeoning industry has faced the uphill battles and uncertainties you raise. But therein lies the opportunity for those who aren't deterred. Anyway I'm still wondering about the state of the industry in designing babies--this OB forum is more clinically oriented so I may have to hit up somewhere else to get answers. There's a lot of personality pathology in any area of medicine depending on how one looks at it.

I'd be ok with choosing eye color etc--whatever pays the bills and makes customers happy. Medicine's a business too. And all docs have to worry about getting sued/liability. Just like all businesses do. It's all about contracts--every signature is one less opportunity to sue.