From Wired:
Personal Genomics Firm 23andMe Patents Designer Baby System, Denies Plans to Use It
BY BRANDON KEIM10.02.1312:08 PM
As described in a patent recently granted by the United States Patent Office, consumer genomics company 23andMe [started by the soon to be ex-wife of one of the Google Guys] has developed a system for helping prospective parents choose the traits of their offspring, from disease risk to hair color. Put another way, it’s a designer baby-making system.
The company says it does not intend to use the technology this way. “When we originally introduced the tool and filed the patent there was some thinking the feature could have applications for fertility clinics,” said Catherine Afarian, a 23andMe spokeswoman. “But we’ve never pursued the idea, and have no plans to do so.”
Filed in December 2008, the patent — number 8543339, “Gamete donor selection based on genetic calculations” — sounds like something out of Gattaca, the 1997 movie that came to symbolize tensions between self-determination and biologically ordained fate.
The patent describes a technology that would take a customer’s preferences for a child’s traits, compute the likely genomic outcomes of combinations between a customer’s sperm or egg and other people’s sex cells, and describe which potential reproductive matches would most likely produce the desired baby.
Among the traits listed in the application as examples of possible choice are: height, weight, hair color, risks of colorectal cancer and congenital heart defects, expected life span, expected lifetime health care costs, and athleticism.
Lesbians and infertile couples leafing through the catalogs of sperm banks could make a good market for this. By necessity, they engage in Design-a-Baby, so it would be helpful for them to have some advice on the likelihood of getting their desired traits. It doesn't even have to be at the genotypic level, just at the phenotypic level: I want my child to have, say, red hair and be skinny and have an SAT over 1300. Here are three donors who each have two of the desired traits. But which ones are more of a sure thing?
Also, the Asian market would likely be much bigger than the Northern Atlantic market.
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26 comments:
'red hair and be skinny and have an SAT over 1300'
holy shit i'm a designer baby
Admit it, Steve, this post was inspired by more than just that article...
Woody Allen is NOT the father, LOL!
How many times has a Woody Allen, film maker thread been sidetracked by, "Man, how did that son of his come out so good looking with Woody Allen as his father?"
Feel so silly now. I mean, look at Ronan! Look at Woody Allen!!
Simultaneously found it interesting as well as finding Farrow/Allen too trashy to care about anything else that may come out in the future.
Frank Sinatra was good looking?
Sinatra wore tuxedos and was always impeccably groomed. Allen dresses like a 1953 CCNY math major.
The market would be just as large here as in China. The only difference would be that here there would be all sorts of pious pubic handwringing over it.
No comment about Sinatra, but Woody Allen is BAD looking, LOL!
I'd never seen this Blomkamp interview before. I don't remember you linking it earlier, Steve.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/aug/17/elysium-neill-bloomkamp-interview
The guy is talking about Malthusian traps, the 10,000 year explosion, and the genetic basis of inequality, and the Guardian drone still puts "sci-fi with a social conscience" in the header.
Sinatra wasn't especially good looking. Like Steve says, he was always snazzily dressed and groomed unlike Woody Allen.
I'd say Woody Allen is average looking, not bad looking. His glasses, bad grooming, bad clothes, bad hair, bad posture, etc., just make him look worse than he is.
"Frank Sinatra was good looking?"
Is that a joke? Of course Frank Sinatra was good looking, when he was young at least. Any man whose nickname is a sexually attractive facial feature (Ol' Blue Eyes) is handsome by definition, right?
http://images.sodahead.com/polls/002364983/4044237195_franksinatra_answer_2_xlarge.jpeg
http://196461961.r.cdn77.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2-Frank-Sinatra1-540x372.jpg
Maybe Steve needs to get out of L.A.
"I want my child to have, say, red hair and be skinny and have an SAT over 1300. Here are three donors who each have two of the desired traits. But which ones are more of a sure thing?"
These posts seem to whisper that you and Jodie Foster are BFF, lol! Isn't that both of her sons? With the SATs waiting, but surely they'll ace them?
What would Chinese ask for? Hair color, eye color, they are always the same. If you are just shooting for IQ you don't need some fancy patented system.
Come to think of it, while Sinatra would not have been my cup of tea, if he's not good looking, then what man is?
That's an extremely high bar if Sinatra doesn't meet it. He was Elvis before there was Elvis.
Very young Sinatra
Young Sinatra mugshot to show it wasn't the clothes.
Wojcicki is kinda cute. But not billionaire cute.
A still from The Pride and the Passion, starring Cary Grant, Frank Sinatra, and Sophia Loren:
http://www.doctormacro.com/Images/Sinatra,%20Frank/Annex/Annex%20-%20Sinatra,%20Frank%20(Pride%20and%20the%20Passion,%20The)_01.jpg
Which one is not like the others in needing to be a great singer to be a movie star?
It would be interesting to know how many people put in physical appearance traits, thus implicitly detracting at least a bit from the selection for high IQ and good health.
"Which one is not like the others in needing to be a great singer to be a movie star?"
"Not as good looking as Cary Grant or Sophia Loren" is a rather expansive definition of plainness.
"Not as good looking as Cary Grant or Sophia Loren" is a rather expansive definition of plainness.
It's not so much that Grant or Loren are good looking, it's that Sinatra is fairly average looking.
Without the glamorous clothing and pampering and favorable lighting, Sinatra looks like an average guy while Grant always looks distinguished:
https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/tumblr_lxrwm3eDXM1qzi1ujo1_r2_1280.jpg
First of all, this sounds like another absurd patent. What is the innovation here? They're genotyping gametes. So what?
Secondly, all this sound and fury over the specter of designer babies and eugenics is ridiculous. Lesbians have been engaging in these practices for years, and phenotype-based donor/mate selection is going to remain far more powerful than genotyping for the foreseeable future. Plant and animal breeders have practiced eugenics with great success without knowing anything about molecular genetics.
We currently know very little about the genetic architecture of complex traits. We're nowhere close to being able to sequence a zygote's genome and make accurate predictions about its genetic potential. I'm highly confident it will happen in my lifetime, but it's not just around the corner.
When Sinatra guest-starred on Magnum p.i. when he would have been about 70, I didn't know who he was, being too young to have caught him in his heyday. But he still had a presence that made for a memorable character and made me suspect that he was a big-shot of some sort.
Ordinary looks with a strong presence beats great looks with a wimpy presence every time. The most sought-after romantic lead actors have both, of course.
"Not as good looking as Cary Grant or Sophia Loren" is a rather expansive definition of plainness.
Sophia Loren is quite an overrated beauty. Sinatra used swagger and style to pull off a dapper dago persona that worked quite well for him, but his game was far more psychological than physical. Cary Grant's clothes were irrelevant, he just exuded charm.
Boy has Mia Farrow run the gambit of looks and talents among husbands. Her other one was Andre Previn.
Which one is not like the others in needing to be a great singer to be a movie star?
You could say the same thing about Dylan. Not that he was a movie star, but that without the blazing talent no one would think (or look) twice.
BTW, how did Joan Crawford become such a big star? She's not good looking and not a good actress.
Sinatra was good looking in a quirky way. Elvis and Cary Grant were more classic, converntionally handsome. As for Ronan Farrow, at first I thought he looked like a male version , or clone of Mia. Sort of like Jesus Christ from the Virgin birth would have looked only like mom. But then I saw a picture of him and I saw something of Woody. Don't laugh--it wasn't just that perhaps "he has his father's eyes"....it was something around the mouth area, a certain slackness.
To paraphrse from Wuthering Heights, when they are wondering if Heathcliff's son has any resemblance to his redoubtable dad or not, the mild boy comes out with enough furious invectiveness to make one old man cackle with triumph.. "there's the father. The two sides always show somewhere!."
Although no one will admit to doing it, I imagine you will see people select traits for male children such as intelligence, assertiveness, and athleticism. The number one trait selected for female children, ahead of all others, will be physical attractiveness.
Never ever EVER diss the Chairman of the Board. Unlike Grant there were no rumors ever of bisexuality. Sinatra! Thats all anyone needs to know.
Personal Genomics Firm 23andMe Patents Designer Baby System, Denies Plans to Use It
Sounds like a great reason to deny people patents for this kind of stuff. Actually sounds like a great reason to do away with patents altogether.
It would be interesting to know how many people put in physical appearance traits, thus implicitly detracting at least a bit from the selection for high IQ and good health.
There's probably a correlation between fitness and beauty.
the gambit
Gamut.
Unlike Grant there were no rumors ever of bisexuality.
Maybe no one ever got envious enough.
"Anonymous Svigor said...
Unlike Grant there were no rumors ever of bisexuality."
That bastard Grant - not only did he play both sides of the field, but when he played my side, he got Dyan Cannon. Handsome guys! They get all the luck! Anyway, Grant was a straight-up guy, even if he wasn't always a straight-up guy.
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