Tailor-made babies
Well, everyone knew it was going to happen. Even those
who said it wouldn’t. Come on, we knew it would, didn’t we! It began
with, let’s give people the choice to end the developing human’s life if
he or she doesn’t have a suitably healthy body or mind. It was all for
the child’s benefit. Of course it was, yes, certainly it was!
Some idiots said, "Watch, before very long ‘the parents’ will be
wanting to choose the colour of the baby’s eyes and to fine tune the
baby’s features. They’ll say things like, ‘No, no, we want the
cheekbones a bit higher. You know what we mean, something like Carol
Vorderman’s. And one thing we simply won’t tolerate is a weak chin. We
loathe weak chins—and ears that stick out and...’ "
To which we replied—that is, the wise among us replied—"Don’t be
ridiculous! No one would go that far. We’re far too morally and socially
sophisticated for that."
We’ve now heard that a committee of scientists and others has advised
the government that ‘parents’ should be given the right to choose the
baby’s gender. (It’s true that there was furious division in the
committee over the recommendations included in the report, but it still
made it to the government and is being "given careful consideration.")
‘Parents’ are to be given the veto over the developing human’s life
not on grounds of health, not on any grounds that lie in the baby, but
because ‘the parents’ don’t want that kind of baby.
"Oh come on darling, let’s have another go. It’s true that we haven’t
yet got the little girl we want and have had to dump the last two but
maybe third time will be lucky."
"Yes, George, but what if it’s another boy—wouldn’t that be terrible!
I don’t know that I could bear it. Three times in a row. You can’t
expect me to live with that kind of stress and disappointment. It’s all
too much." (She sobs bitterly. Poor thing.)
"Steady, darling, steady. They can do magical things now these medical people. And not only can they do them, they’re eager
to please people like us that know exactly what we want and will not
settle for anything else. We don’t have to roll the dice any more.
They’ll see to it that we get the exact model we want."
"Oh, George, you’re so reassuring," she cooed, "You’ll make a
wonderful father for our little pet. You’ll sacrifice everything for
her. You’re that kind of man."
"Oh, Cynthia," he cooed back, "I love it that you see those qualities
in me. But it’s really you, dear, you bring them out in me."
"I feel better already. Let’s go down and pick through those dresses
and shirts and see if we can get something that pleases us. If not we'll
get them tailor-made. And on the way home we can stop off at that
little shop and get some ice-cream on the way home. Won’t that be fun?
They have so many flavours," she said with a sweet giggle, "we're simply spoiled with choices."