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    Why Making A 'Designer Baby' Would Be Easier Said Than Done

    Ethical concerns aside, the genetic ingredients for human traits are so complex that editing a few embryonic genes is unlikely to have much effect — or achieve the fantasy of enhancing humans.
    by Richard Harris May 02, 2019 4 minutes
    As scientists learn more about how the complex way genes combine and work together to create human traits, the idea of "designer babies" becomes less and less likely.

    Scientists continue to speak out against the prospect of producing engineered embryos that could lead to so-called designer babies.

    Leaders of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy sent a letter on April 24 to the secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, adding their voices to the call for a moratorium on experiments that could alter the genes passed down to future generations.

    This move follows a widely criticized experiment in China last year that apparently produced children with edited genomes.

    The concern is largely ethical. The reality is biologists probably couldn't produce designer

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