Designer Children

I was reading about our increased ability to design our offspring. The first thing I thought was that wouldn't have done me any good. I never planned a pregnancy. To design a child would take months of preparation. Yet, the more I thought, the more things I realized I'd improve on my natural way.

My children were destined to be short. Their father is 5'6" and I'm 5'2".  3 of my 4 grandparents were 5'2", and my father was 5'10". On the paternal side, 5'6" is the tallest. If I'd been designing my children, I'd want them to be at least 4" taller, or 5'10" for my son and 5'5" for my daughter. I think it would have helped attract girls for my son and made my athletic daughter just a hair better at sports. Short girls can look fat with an extra 10 lbs, so it would have made the battle of the bulge easier.

My poor son has the male pattern baldness that I would have designed differently. He's also tone deaf, but I probably wouldn't have known to fix that in advance. When your father and grandfather have perfect pitch, you aren't expecting that disability.

Both my children were intelligent and healthy, so that didn't need any help. But then I began to think about how the 1/3 of the children who are unplanned would be competing with these designer children. On many levels, it would be even, on some much harder for the natural children. Designer children who have the genes for attractive looks, athletic abilities and intelligence could succeed easily in many fields. Natural children usually succeed in only one or two fields at a time without working hard.

My children graduated 10 and 14 years ago. At that time to play in the band, one was expected to take private lessons from the 7th grade on. To play in sports, one was expected to take private lessons and/or play on competitive private teams. Since then I've continued to hear from parents about the expense of keeping their children competitive.

When my daughter was 12 years old, I had turned down the suggestion that I take her to a private teacher in another city. The coach would be teaching 10 pitchers and 10 catchers for hour sessions at only $50 each. A concerned mother called me to tell me how she was paying $2000 for a special camp plus lessons like this for her 10 year old. She told me she'd get a return on her investment when her daughter got a scholarship for college. Quick math showed she could pay for the local state college herself for 9+ years of this kind of spending. I asked her, a dentist, why she thought the coach was worth $500 an hour. (this was in 1993 dollars) I wouldn't have paid for the lessons if I'd had the money. To this day, I wonder what her reaction would have  been if I'd told her about my daughter's full academic scholarship.

When the scare was on that if people could choose the sex of their child, they'd overwhelmingly pick boys, I wasn't too concerned. After a while, girls would be in short supply and would be what parents were picking. Designer children would improve the gene pool, but I think it would also widen the gap between the rich and the poor, the haves and the have nots. The thing that alarms me most is that people who can pay to have their children's genes changed would have extremely high expectations of them. If you designed your child to be a basketball player but he or she wanted to be a musician instead, could the parents handle it? As parents we all have little disappointments in the choices our children sometimes make. We expect it. We never know what to expect.

Regardless, I'm glad I have my short, intelligent, rhythm challenged kids. I love my tone deaf, receding hairline, sensitive son just the way he is. I'll keep his competitive, creative, multi-tasking, socially active sister, too.