Do parents have the right to determine their child’s appearance? A Los Angeles clinic is expecting their first trait-selected baby to be born later this year, according to a BBC article about “designer babies.”

The LA Fertility Institute, overseen by Dr. Jeff Steinberg, has the ability to choose genetic traits in unborn children. Couples could conceivably choose the hair color, eye color, complexion and stature of their child through a process known as Preimplanation Genetic Diagnosis, or PGD. Using several embryos, parents can pick a child’s desired genetic makeup before they are born — potentially, all factors could be on the table.

Sex selection is already being practiced among parents who desire to balance out the genders of their family. One family with four daughters went into the Institute seeking a solution and ended up bearing twin boys. The father, Bob Harrison, said in a CNN special report, “I love playing with dolls, but sometimes trucks are fun too.”

Both sex selection and appearance determinacy are highly debated and controversial. People’s worst fears are being fueled by the rhetoric that accompanies these procedures. We’re of course going to move towards a society of perfectly similar, disease-immune humans that all wear grey jumpsuits. And we’ll be ruled by a police state that broadcasts brainwashing messages from loudspeakers. Our imaginations run a little wild sometimes.

However, the idea of determining your kid’s genetic makeup is rather disconcerting. If such a child knows how they were created, they’ll always question whether things would have been better left up to natural processes. Who’s to say that the parents should decide what their child will be? What if a sports-obsessed dad chooses a tall, muscular male? The same boy might have grown to be a brilliant artist due to his overbearing father. Or what about a superficial mom who pines for a beauty-pageant daughter that otherwise might have been a brilliant professor?

It’s the job of parents to help their child become the most genuine individual they can be. But making decisions about what they should be — things as seemingly minute as hair and eye color — could be a little too decisive. Doesn’t personal integrity mean that no one can tell you what you ought to be? Parents don’t always know what’s best for their children. Imagine Britney Spears getting to determine her next baby’s singing ability, or Tom Cruise giving his kid a predisposition to alien religions. Eventually, genetic science may be able to do just that.

So much of parenting is what takes place after birth, and choosing cosmetic details or gender doesn’t at first seem dangerous. But it’s really the mindset that is dangerous. The idea that parents have a decisive say in exactly what and who their kid turns out to be is destructive. Parents ought to be guides, not gods. While I don’t say the latter to invoke religion, these decisions are a big assumption of power.

It remains to be seen whether this service becomes commonplace or just exists as an unrealized frontier. When I called the LA Clinic, they hadn’t released any official statement, except detailing their purported ability to let parents decide traits. I don’t think we’ll be creating a homogenous society any time soon, because the burden is still on parents to decide just how involved they’ll be. In this era of interfered development, I am thankful for a good friend, who is due this month; she has decided to wait until birth to see what her baby is going to be.

Reach columnist Jackson Rohrbaugh at opinion@dailyuw.com.