Fertility Researchers Explain Scientific Advances Could One Day Allow Parents To Choose Name Of Child

BALTIMORE—Offering a glimpse into a future that seemed straight out of a science-fiction film, fertility researchers at Johns Hopkins University told reporters Monday that scientific advances could one day allow parents to choose the name of their child. “Imagine a world where prospective parents can walk into a clinic and tell fertility doctors they’d like to have a child named Haley,” said Dr. Naomi Lawson, who explained that due to breakthroughs in gene editing and stem cell research, such a scenario would not only be possible, but even commonplace, within a few short decades. “Babies named Jack, babies named Emily, babies named Scott and Kennedy and Taylor. They’ll be completely customizable. Of course, there will be some ethical issues to contend with. For example, what if someone wanted to name their child Clem?” At press time, Lawson added that the technology had already shown promise in a study in which fertility researchers had named over a dozen baby mice.