Ok I’m no big fan of preposterous notions of The Perfect Baby, but I’ve got nothing on the hardball position that we and lots of others predicted would come out of the Vatican once this Pope was named. MSNBC/Reuters reports that he is on the warpath where reprotech is concerned:

ROME – Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday condemned genetic engineering and other scientific practices that allow people to select so-called designer babies by screening them for defects.

In a speech to the Pontifical Academy for Life, a Church body of experts, the Pope also attacked artificial insemination and the widespread use of medical tests that can detect diseases and inherited disorders in embryos.

In developed countries, there is a growing interest for the most sophisticated biotechnological research to introduce subtle and extensive eugenics methods in the obsessive search for the perfect child, the Pope said.

Clearly no one has apprised the Pope that the critical bioethics issue these days is the fate of the body and child of Anna Nicole Smith, which has turned MSNBC into a 24/7 soap opera. But thank goodness he’s protecting us from reproductive technology even in this time of crisis.
[hat tip: Art Caplan]

Labels: anna nicole smith, artificial insemination, perfect baby, pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, the Pope