Hi Ed, Here is an abridged version of the article in yesterday Sunday Times. This, of course, refers to women who need IVF treatment for infertility reasons (at least one presumes so) rather than otherwise fertile parents who set out to "improve" their stock.
(The last quote in the article is a rather nice example of the Nanny-knows-best attitude of the establishment over here!) Keith <<<< BABIES-TO-ORDER RAISE 'EUGENICS' FEARS by Jonathan Calvert and Judith O'Reilly Some of Britain's fertility clinics are offering couples the chance to determine their future baby's physical appearance, a Sunday Times investigation has found. Prospective parents can select sperm donors who bear little resemblance from themselves in a practice some specialists have likened to eugenics. Highly-educated, tall, blond, blue-eyed and "attractive" donor fathers are on offer if requested, and one clinic admitted that it screened out potential donors who had prominent features, such as big noses and protruding ears. The investigation reveals the ease with which it is possible to creat "designer babies" in Britain. Until now the practice has been seen as restricted to less stringently regulated countries. The practice appears to contradict assurances by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) that every attempt is made to use a sperm donor who has similar physical characteristics to that of the male partner. This was devised to protect children from potential trauma over their identity. Yesterday, Baroness Warnock, who chaired the committee of inquiry which led to the HFE Act in 1990, said the practice of selecting donor characteristics was "against common humanity". In the Sunday Times investigation, two undercover reporters posing as a childless couple with fertility problems approached several of Britain's best-known private clinics seeking a potential sperm donor to make the "perfect" baby. The clinics were asked whether they would help create a baby who was blond, blue-eyed, tall, athletic, intelligent and with flawless vision. Neither of the reporters has blue eyes, both have dark hair and wear glasses. Three of the clinics -- the London Fertility Centre, run by Prof Ian Craft, Britain's best-paid fertility doctor, the London Women's Clinic and the Bridge Centre in south London -- agreed to search their sperm banks for the couple's ideal donor. Two of the clinics were prepared to import samples from America where databases give detailed profiles and sometimes photographs of good-looking, high-achieving donors. When the reporters vistied the London Fertility Centre's clinic in Harley Street, Craft, who earned £2.4 million in 2000, mingled with patients beneath the chandelier in the mock-Edwardian reception. The Centre charges £712 for sperm-donor treatment and £2,562 for IVF plus a variety of extras for scans and tests. The consultation with Dr Anna Carby lasted just half-an-hour but cost £165. Carby explained that sperm was classified according to characteristics such as height, build and hair and eye colour. The male reporter said he would like a baby with blue eyes and blond hair and asked if it would be possible to buy sperm from a donor with those characteristics. After cautioning that there was no guarantee the child would inherit those features, Carby replied: "It is certainly possible . . . . You may ask for whatever characteristics you want in the donor." At the London Women's Clinic, also in Harley Street, Freda Cuffe, a specialist fertility nurse, was even more upbeat. "We would hope to provide you with exactly what you are looking for in a donor. If we were unable to satsify what you asked for, there are other clinics we can go to," she said. Donors, added Cuffe, were selected by a colleague who was "very picky" and made sure they were good-looking: "She will not have a donor she would consider unattractive. She never has anybody with very prominent features -- no one with a big nose of big ears." At the Bridge Centre, just south of London Bridge, Dr Susan Smith, the medical director, assured the couple she would do everything she could to find a blue-eyed, blond, tall, athletic, professional donor. Smith said that the clinic had links with a sperm bank in California if the request proved impossible to meet in Britain. Later, the couple asked whether the HFEA might frown on the import of sperm fom America for sometic and social reasons. Smith replied: "No, no, no. They really couldn't care about that." The American company linked to the Bridge Centre is based in San Francisco. It advertises donors on its website offering handsome men with impressive academic qualifications, such as a 6ft 5in blond Norwegian-American who is studying for a PhD in astrophysics and who enjoys salsa dancing. Every year more than 1,000 babies are born in Britain through sperm donation and specialists say that prospective parents are becoming increasingly demanding about the character and background of the donor. It is not illegal to provide donors who do not match the parents' characteristics; the HFEA's code of conduct merely states that the clinics, which it licenses, should consider the welfare of the child. It states: "Clinics do their best to use sperm from a donor who has similar physical characterstics as the male partner." The Bridge Centre insists that its actions conform with the HFEA code. Not all clinics were willing to provide "designer" sperm, however. The Portland Hospital in London and the Harley Street Fertility Centre told the unvercover reporters they would not offer a donor with different features to the non-biological father because it was not in the interests of the child. Dickenson Cowan, a consultant who has a fertility clinic at the portland said it would be "unethical" to supply the couple with a blond, bue-eyed donor likening it to "eugenics" practised by the Nazis. Baroness Warnock said selecting donor characteristics had already gone too far, adding: "If you really want a baby you had better take what's coming." ©Sunday Times 21 July 2002 >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________
