Split in U.K. Parliament Over ‘Designer Babies’

Proposals to allow British parents having fertility treatment to choose the sex of their unborn baby split an influential group of lawmakers Thursday, reigniting the debate over “designer babies.”

Couples should be able to decide the gender of the embryo being implanted to balance out families, Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee said in a report. But half of the committee’s 11 members rejected the findings as “unbalanced and light on ethics.” Critics say sex selection would turn unborn babies into consumer items and pave the way for parents to choose other characteristics such as hair or eye color.