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Carole Mikita ReportingCreating designer babies and the implications that advances in reproductive science have for our future, that is the subject of a documentary at the Sundance Film Festival titled "Frozen Angels”.
This film is what some are describing as a startling glimpse into the so-called American Dream. Some couples are literally shopping for 'the perfect child'...
Instead of working to shape the perfect body, why don't we genetically-design children to have long-lean looks, a certain hair and eye color, who are very intelligent? One of the filmmakers caught the vision for this documentary, 'Frozen Angels', after reading an article in a German newspaper three years ago.
Frauke Sandig, Producer, Director 'Frozen Angels': "And the article was called 'The Land of the Children Makers' and it had just this fascinating range of colorful characters working in the reproductive technology industry in Los Angeles."
Like a doctor at a sperm bank, and a radio talk show host who also owns a surrogate mother agency and the world's biggest egg donor agency. The filmmakers are basically asking the question - where will this take us as a society?
Frauke: "To design your perfect blonde, blue-eyed, intelligent, athletic child. So, what would happen, would the world fall apart into class systems? Researchers at case western are actually working on a procedure where people could be genetically-engineered by the insertion of an extra chromosome, with a bit of new DNA on it. You then, indeed would be creating a different species. There’s a big market for Yale, Harvard students – egg donors who get $50,000 for their eggs. So I think it’s very possible that the market will go in a very dangerous direction.”
'Frozen Angels' has one more screening at the festival, tomorrow night at midnight at the Holiday Village Cinemas.
