Maria Hvistendahl reports on the rapidly advancing science of identifying a baby's future traits while it's still a fetus:
Now, with the cost of DNA sequencing dropping faster than that of computing power, [researcher Dennis Lo] estimates the bill may come to one-tenth of that—still expensive, but no doubt tempting for some parents. Lo wagers complete fetal genome testing might be widely available in a clinical setting within a decade. What fetal genes might one day suggest about a baby’s eye color, appearance, and intellectual ability will be useful to parents, not insurers. But with costs coming down and insurers interested in other aspects of the fetal genome, a Gattaca–like two-tiered society, in which parents with good access to health care produce flawless, carefully selected offspring and the rest of us spawn naturals, seems increasingly plausible.
The Dish 