Ethical issues

Professor Julian Savulescu said that creating so-called designer babies could be considered a "moral obligation" as it makes them grow up into "ethically better children."

Your designer baby is nearly ready, Prof. Savulescu.

Julian Savulescu, who is professor of practical ethics at the University of Oxford (no, really, don't laugh) is well-known in ethics circles, being editor of the prestigious journal Ethics girls and a consultant to the TV Series The only way is Ethics.

An excuse to publish a saucy photo A conference in practical ethics

Professor Savulescu explains:

"Many parents are troubled by naughty children - what we ethics specialists call 'Unethical organisms' - and the solution is to abort all the potentially badly-behaved children and make sure that only the good ones survive.

Unethical children, who will never grow up to be Oxford professors

We are already screening out medical defects, in an attempt to prevent the birth of disabled people - people like Stephen Hawking or Tanni, Baroness Grey-Thompson, whom we Oxford ethicists consider to be second-rate - and it is only logical to make sure that in the end only well-behaved healthy kids are born: kids who will go to bed when they are told, get lots of A*-grade A-levels, and end up as Guardian journalists, professors of ethics or lawyers."

A well-behaved healthy kid

With the retirement of Richard Dawkins from his chair at Oxford, insiders believe that Julian Savulescu is now a front-runner for the prestigious Mad Scientist of the Year award.