When I want to phone my friend, I do not dial a random number and hope my friend answers. I look up the number in a book, then dial the corresponding number. A similar process may be possible for women who hope to be mothers.

The advance of technology means that rapid genotyping will soon be reasonable. A woman cannot do much about her own genome - but just as when you have lemons you can make lemonade, it is possible that knowlege of the mother's genome might allow a rational match to be found among men such that a healthy, vital child is produced. The match could be designed to correct flaws in the mothers genome - or possibly it might be found that her DNA can correct flaws in an otherwise excellent donor. I am not suggesting that this rational match be married to the hopeful mother - the fact that his genome is a good match does not mean he would be a suitable companion. Rather, there would be a database of genetic profiles and frozen sperm, which the woman could acquire. And thaw.

Folks may argue this is baked in the form of sperm banks which have the sperm of nobel laureates, CEOs etc, or photo books showing how buff each donor is. The difference here is that the actual genotype of the father is used, rather than the extended phenotype, and it is matched using information from the mother's genotype.
-- bungston, Jan 10 2003

<newsflash> women stopped throwing their knickers at sexy male celebrities - because they got all sensible and gene conscious all of a sudden - how sad, etc</newsflash>
-- po, Jan 10 2003


It would be interesting to see if women have attraction to those who are genotypically complimentary; not just phenotypically.
-- ImBack, Jan 10 2003


Yeah, but what'll you do with Danny DeVito?
-- my face your, Jan 10 2003


hey celebrities arent the only ones with awesome genes, persuasiveness isnt genetic. i think the gist of the idea isnt too too bad, though it does cause difficulties for starting a family, since the man wont feel the same responsibility to the child if it didnt have anything to do with him. it would be like him having a foster child. it would promote a heathier genepool by preventing genetic diseases.

after all that defense, im gonna crash this and say its entirely baked, you can opt for genetic screening to find out if your potential child would be at risk for genetic diseases. you probubly havent heard of this because usually, due to cost, this is only done when there is a history of genetic disorders within a family.
-- Aphyllophorales, Jul 11 2003



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