- But as the practice becomes more widespread, women are no longer trying to hide the fact that their babies come from donor eggs by working hard to find donors who are physically or genetically similar to them, a study finds. Instead, the researchers say, recipients tend to look for other qualities, such as intelligence and athletic ability, that they hope to pass on to their children.
As the fields of genetics and genomics progress, it should be interesting to see how prevalent egg and sperm screening becomes. It's easy to envision a scenario where "designer babies" come into vogue, with parents being able to screen for or outright select genetic components of their children. Seeing as sperm and eggs are merely cells, is there an ethical component to consider? As for the trait selection itself, it's interesting that these women prioritize intelligence over looks. It's good to see that using sperm donors is becoming more mainstream such that mother's don't try to hide that they used donor services. Appearances are, despite our best efforts to look past them, very important. Good-looking people tend to be sought out more often, which develops their social skills and provides a very different set of opportunities compared to people who are less good-looking. I'd argue that good-looking people tend to rely on people and their social abilities to progress, whereas less good-looking people rely on other skill sets. That's not to say that the two are mutually exclusive. Good submission.