News articles about cloning and designer children lead us to wonder how couples of the future will make babies.

Public interest in this possibility is entirely justified. Couples will be able to make ever more meaningful choices about the genetic constitutions of the children they bear.

Humanity has begun to seize control of its evolutionary future. Where this will ultimately carry us is unclear, but within a decade, screening to avoid most genetic diseases may be commonplace, and genetic selection of embryos for various non-disease traits - not just gender - may have begun.

In two decades, selection for non-disease traits may be common, and in vitro fertilization (IVF) could become a more routine form of conception, even for those not suffering from infertility. In three or four decades, direct genetic manipulation of human embryos for select qualities may begin greatly to extend the power of genetic screening. Thus, within a matter of a few generations, we may come to view a child's conception as simply too important to leave to random, unmonitored meetings of sperm and egg.

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