Blue eyes or brown?

When I was kid, I clearly remember the moon landing the summer of 1969. My family watched, along with millions of others, as Neil Armstrong took those first steps. It was a tremendous moment of national pride, coming at a time when we all needed something to unify and uplift our country.

As an eight-year-old, the sky was no longer the limit in the summer of 1969. The stars were the limit -- who knew how far we would go? Technology would save us all.

That summer, at the same time Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were taking those first steps on the moon, at the top of charts was a strange song the duo from Lincoln, Nebraska -- Zagar and Evans. "In the year 2525," which I played as a 45 rpm single on the orange RCA label, painted a rather depressing view of the future. It was a catchy tune and the only hit for the duo.

The song's lyrics said that in the year 6565, "Ain't gonna need no husband, won't need no wife. You'll pick your son, pick your daughter too, From the bottom of a long black tube..."

I began thinking about this song when I heard a news report this week that a Los Angeles fertility clinic is offering to design a baby to the parents' exact requirements. About 4,500 years ahead of schedule, but very disturbing, nonetheless.

Where else but Los Angeles would you find boutique "designer" babies? Jeff Steinberg, director of The Fertility Institute, is now offering a service where parents will be able to not only select the gender of the baby, they will also be able to select eye and hair color as well as dark or fair complexion. The service will cost $18,000. Steinberg expects the first "trait selection" baby to be born next year.

Steinberg was on the team that worked on the world's first test tube baby, Louise Brown, born in Britain in 1978. Trait selection is based on pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, or PGD, which has for several years allowed doctors to identify potentially lethal diseases or conditions in embryos.

At a meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics last year, William Kearns, a medical geneticist, said that he had been able to get enough DNA from a cell to identify thousands of characteristics of the embryo. Dr Kearns explained the technique for medical use, but Dr Steinberg quickly spotted other potential.

Kearns is outraged by Steinberg's use of his research. Kearns' goal is to screen embryos to help couples have healthy babies free of genetic diseases. Traits like eye color are not diseases, according to Dr. Kearns.

This is another example, I believe, of technology advancing faster than our society can keep pace. Many times, science finds a way to do some modern miracle and without thinking of the ramifications, we blindly go along. Just because we can do something doesn't always mean we should do something.

I was born with a slight cleft palate. It was corrected by surgery when I was a toddler. I can remember going to the hospital and being in a ward and having to have my arms restrained afterwards so I wouldn't pick at the stitches or scabs. After hearing the birth cry of my daughters, I immediately looked at their mouths, worried that I had passed this trait along. Thankfully, I did not.

If this technology would have been available and the norm 50 years ago, my parents could have "fixed" me. I imagine they also could have "fixed" my flat feet, bad teeth and male pattern baldness.

Or perhaps they would have simply chosen another embryo and I would have never been born.

I'm thankful this technology did not exist, and my parents, as well as my wife and I were not faced with these decisions. Whether you choose to believe it or not, we all are truly unique gifts of the creator.

I fear for the children of the future and the exploitation of this technology.

As always, I welcome your comments. You can reach me by email at tstangl@lemarscomm.net, telephone 712-546-7031, x40 or toll free 1-800-728-0066 x40.

Thanks for reading, I'll keep in touch. Feel free to do the same.