 Does the author think Harris is serious about selling eggs?
This week, soft-porn entrepreneur Ron Harris began auctioning the eggs of fashion models on the Internet. Like Dr. Richard Seed, who recently declared his intention to clone human beings, Harris has attracted the attention of the media and politicians who are "looking into" whether he can be stopped. Egg auctions will produce designer babies. Harris cites his experience as a horse breeder and asks, "We bid for everything else in this society--why not eggs?" Alarmists, agreeing that Harris "can put you into your own designer baby by selling eggs," predict that his success will steer "the future of human breeding" toward "genetic engineering." 2. Egg auctions will fail to produce designer babies. While fretting about what will happen if Harris succeeds, fertility experts simultaneously debunk that scenario. "Not only is it ethically ludicrous, but the fact is, no kid's going to look like the model's picture," observes ethicist George Annas. 4. Egg auctions will promote the survival of the unfittest. Harris writes that only men with "substantial financial resources" are fit to give his models' offspring "a financially secure and stable life." But skeptics wonder whether women who sell their eggs to the highest bidder--and men who buy these eggs for the sole purpose of spawning good-looking children--may produce children just as dysfunctional as themselves. Egg auctions will fail to promote the survival of the unfittest. A model who is perfectly ruthless will conceal this fact when selling her eggs. (One of Harris' "angels" has already been caught lying about her age.) How does Harris know whether his models have had collagen injections and nose jobs? Annas concludes that since there's "no way to know how much of their beauty is a product of their genes, plastic surgery, a makeup artist, or exercise," only a "naive" person would buy their eggs on the basis of the photographs displayed on the site. Harris casually asserts that beauty "shows healthiness and longevity." When asked on the Today show how much "medical screening" he has given his egg donors, Harris answered, "None." Harris says he's not the first person to market good genes. Others, he notes, have sold sperm and solicited eggs on the basis of the donor's intelligence. This critique is usually offered by a blow-dried TV interviewer who, after thanking Harris for his time, urges viewers to stay tuned for the movie starlet who will join the program after a brief commercial break.
 Not at all, selling eggs is a PR stunt, to drive traffic to Harris' pornography website.
 Not at all, selling eggs is a PR stunt, to drive traffic to Harris' pornography website.  Absolutely, designer babies are big money.  Yes, however, he is not intelligent enough to see the many flaws in his plan.  Yes, Harris is already in talks with geneticists. He'll be able to charge extra for certain features.