What is designer babies?

Designer baby used to refer to a baby from a genetically screened embryo for set of traits that closest match those customized by their parent's wishes during the in-vitro fertilization (IVF) process. In the IVF procedure, often many embryos are made for implantation to increase survival rate in the process. With technological advances, it becomes possible to screen the embryo for traits in addition to health to guide the implant outcome favoring parent bias.

The Natural Process: How to Build a Human,

by Eleanor Lutz at TabletopWhale.com

Beyond genetic screening and onto possible alteration
As seen in the animated gif above, technology plays a role to obtain designer babies by pre-screen the embryo. Yet as technology continues to move forward, the baby's gender, appearance, intelligence, disease, and personality can be theoretically possible to be altered by biotechnology. This is designer babies who are genetically modified. The embryo, instead of screened, has been involved in some level of alteration. The term "designer babies" used to only refer to genetically screened babies is now also applied to genetically modified possibility that technology is able to deliver but many ethical and safety related questions are arising about whether genetic alteration should be allowed and the consequences.




Sources:
https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/ethics-designer-babies
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-30742774
http://www.futureforall.org/bioengineering/designer-babies.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12141931

Pictures:
http://catholiclane.com/wp-content/uploads/designer-baby.jpg
http://tabletopwhale.com/2014/12/16/how-to-build-a-human.html