Perfect product babies

A British couple wants a baby, but not just any baby. Charl and Danielle de Beer are undergoing in-vitro fertilization and have obtained permission to screen their embryos for early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Mr. de Beer has a family history of Alzheimer's, and he told the Daily Telegraph, "I am not prepared to run the risk of passing it on."

Gilbert Meilaender, an ethics professor and member of the President's Council on Bioethics, said when parents pick and choose between embryos, they are treating their child like a product, not a gift. He said shopping for the perfect kid - and discarding the imperfect one - is "the way we treat products that we produce rather than gifts that we receive," and it "strikes quite directly at our belief in the equality of human lives."

Echoing words from the Nicene Creed, he argues that a child is equal because he is begotten, not made. What we beget is a "fruit of our embrace," Meilaender said. "What you make is clearly inferior to the maker. ... What we make we determine, govern."

Screening embryos for Alzheimer's is especially troubling, Meilaender said, because the disease "would not manifest itself for decades after birth." But Alan Thornhill, scientific director at the de Beer's clinic, said a person with early-onset Alzheimer's has "only half a life worth living."

Parenting is risky and takes unconditional love. Meilaender said if parents believe they can exercise perfect control, they're deceiving themselves. And if they insist on a "perfect child or no child at all," they should ask themselves if they're prepared to give "the kind of love and acceptance that parents are supposed to give."