Wanted: Someone to Play God

Science has given us childbirth miracles. Now we need laws to create some boundaries

Spike Walker / Stone / Getty

Artificial fertilization

I understand why no politician wants to get between a childless couple and the doctors who offer an answer to their prayers. This is the longing that burns and scars so deeply that we don't know how to talk about it and so privately that we don't want to try. But as medicine redraws the map of what's possible when it comes to making children, we all have an interest in asking how far we should be allowed to go.

It's a good thing that most doctors are principled professionals, since there is nothing to stop them from implanting 10 embryos...

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