Genetic engineering is no longer purely the stuff of science fiction.

Not only plants, but higher mammals--sheep, a cat--have been successfully cloned.

Scientists, philosophers, and politicians debate the ethics of cloning a human being.

Though Louise Brown, the first test tube baby, was a worldwide sensation in 1978, in vitro fertilization is now almost commonplace.

Embryos can now be screened for some genetic markers. It isn't much of a leap to contemplate the possibility of "designer babies," fertilized to order with desired traits such as hair and eye color.