How very dangerous it is to overstep our boundaries. For multi millions of years Our Creator has done a good job of creating babies, now man steps in and becomes the so called'"creator". Man is not perfect and errs in so many ways. Remember the story of the Frankenstein monster? Though fictional, it will and could become a reality if this sort of thing continues. The basic problem is that man wants to be God and that doesn't work. It will eventually cause not a super race of people but more dysfunctional ones.

Anita Restivo, Boca Raton,

There is a theory that the increase in autism in recent years may be partially attributable to analytical types pairing up because they meet in engineering school (engineers apparently have more autistic children than other demographic groups). Instead of getting super babies, they may be creating children with significant social impairments. Think about some of the dismal results when animal breeders have tried to enhance a specific feature in an animal.

Hello, brave new world! Goodbye, sanity!

Judith M., Brainerd, USA

If you are going to bring in 'eugenics', you should distinguish between state eugenics, where someone else defines and applies the standard for what is a 'good' human being, and the domestic variety where individuals make these choices for themselves.

Most people are applying such considerations, perhaps unconsciously, when the choose a partner. Would you rather we used a lottery machine to assign mates to each other? We don't mock someone if they marry a partner who is intelligent or beautiful and get a child who isn't.

Bernard Shaw said "imagine a child with my beauty and your brains", but he was being glib, rude and a little pessimistic, and perhaps he was more comfortable with Stalin than with women. Raising a child is a very expensive project. Someone who unfortunately needs to buy in half or all of the blueprints might find it a false economy to skimp on these, but shouldn't expect the benefits of paying more to be obvious.

John Riseley, Harrogate, England

More to the point, what happens when nature throws these control freaks a curve ball and their baby is not the one they thought they ordered?
Part of becoming a parent is accepting that not everything in life is within our control. Ordering a superbaby is just another way of setting oneself up for a fall.

Laure, London,

Intelligence definitely has an inherited aspect. One of Einstein's sons (Hans Albert) became one of the most prominent engineers in academia, and is well known for his work on erosion and water flow (the other son, Eduard was a schizophrenic). Robert K. Merton, one of the most prominent sociologists of all time (he is credited with coining the term "self fulfilling prophecy"), had a son Robert C. Merton who won a nobel in economics. Pierre and Marie Curie's daughter Irene won her own nobel in chemistry and both of her children are prominent scientists too. Ludwig and Richard von Mises, the former a prominent economist and the latter a prominent mathematician were brothers. Niels Bohr's and his son Aage both won nobels in physics and Niels' brother Harald was a prominent mathematician. There are plenty more examples of this. Suffice it to say there are too many examples to ignore the inheritability of intelligence.

Seth Hirsch, New York, USA

Has anyone found a remarkable contribution made by one of Einstein's children? There is no evidence that the attributes of genius or talent can be inherited. Beauty is more than genes. Why are people spending vast fotunes in an effort to produce super babies, when the available evidence is that it does not work?

Barry Jacobs, M. D., Carrollton, Texas, USA