[wordup] Gattaca Design-a-child

[Adam Shand]

This is pretty neat, just thought I'd pass it on.  Lets just hope it
stays on a web pages somewhere rather then in some insurance companies
rate plan adjuster :-) 

Adam.

From: Richard Schwartfeger <istari at spack.org>
Subject: Gattaca Design-a-child
Date: 12 Feb 2002 05:41:00 -0800

Your mention of Gattaca in the last WordUp prompted me to have a look at
the website (via www.gattaca.com) they have a few interesting things there
(it's all Flash-based btw). There's a gen-ethics discussion board
(currently coverving 3 topics), but something rather nifty is the
'Design-a-child' wizard:

http://www.spe.sony.com/Pictures/SonyMovies/movies/Gattaca/design_child.htm

This lets you choose to either 'roll the genetic dice' or 'design your own
child'.

Each option has you complete a survey of both parents (A & B) -
it does ask a bit of private medical data and you'll need to know
things from your ancestor's medical history (such obscurities as 'was
their eyesight 20/20 or 20/40?').

Based on my (somewhat rusty) genetics knowledege, its analysis is fairly
correct, though not the most advanced genetic profiler in the world :-)