TV Reviews : A Flawed ‘Perfect Baby’

“The Perfect Baby,” an ABC News special that looks at the genetic revolution in medicine, raises an amazing number of ethical issues in its hour of air time.

Unfortunately, “Perfect Baby,” airing at 10 tonight on Channels 7, 3, 10 and 42, is not quite perfect, offering only a quick skim over the surface of these issues.

Part of the blame must go to the format that commercial TV documentaries are locked into: four neat little segments that leave room to sell ads. But a major part of the blame must go to host Barbara Walters (as well as executive producer Phyllis McGrady, for not reining Walters in), since this show has her indelible stamp: the trivializing of subjects, the short shrift given to serious answers, the sound-bite-sized bits and pieces tailor-made for promo spots.

The issues eventually get the better of the host. The heart-breaking human dramas of “Perfect Baby” are compelling. Parents continually say, “All we want is a healthy baby”; in the show we see parents forced to make agonizing choices of life and death before birth as well as after, parents forced to confront and resolve as best they can real-life dilemmas.

The ethical questions raised by genetic engineering are many. A small sample: Who will manipulate childrens’ genes? Who will decide what makes a “perfect” baby?

The answers are complex, impossible even to state without injecting countless qualifiers.

Though good intentions do not necessarily a good documentary make, “Perfect Baby” is worth a look--for the importance of its topic and its implications for all of us.