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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"They used to say that a child conceived in love has a greater chance of happiness. They don't say that anymore."''|'''Vincent''', ''[[Gattaca]]''}}
One of the biggest downfalls of [[Lego Genetics]] is the fact that it's hard to modify an adult. They're already done growing and the idea seems a bit far fetched to most people. If you modify them before they're born, however, then it's far more plausible.
The resulting child is often seen either as more perfect and wonderful than normal people, or as a freak/monster who should have never existed and must now be
It is not uncommon to have settings, especially in [[Science Fiction]] of the [[Dystopia
See also the [[Evilutionary Biologist]] and [[Social Darwinist]].
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== Anime & Manga ==
* That's a big part of the premise behind ''[[Saber Marionette J]]''.
** Considering that men were the only survivors. Which doesn't make a lot of sense when you consider you CAN clone females from males. If women were the only survivors, it would make more sense. [[Artistic License: Biology|But at the end of the day, that's not really important]].
* An interesting variant occurs in ''[[Simoun]]'', in which one of the enemy nations has replaced the traditional method of sex selection among the [[Human Aliens]] who populate the world: instead of everyone being female until 17, and choosing a sex then, the enemy nation assigns sexes to babies shortly after birth through hormones and surgery.
* ''[[Monster (manga)|Monster]]'' includes a more realist variation on the concept- the babies produced by Franz Bonaparta's program {{spoiler|including Johan and Anna/Nina}} are conceived in the normal way and carried by their own biological mothers, but their parents were handpicked by the program's supervisors and manipulated into falling in love.
* In ''[[Vandread]]'', humanity has split into a planet of all males called Tarak and a planet of all females called Mejare. DNA from a couple is manipulated to give a new baby. On Tarak, this means a factory birth, while on Mejare, the baby is implanted in the womb to be born normally. This makes them effectively a pair of [[One-Gender Race|One Gender Races]], though normal breeding could be resumed. Note that these are not the only colony worlds left, just the main ones we see.
** It was later revealed to be due to an [[Ancient Conspiracy]] involving the mass organ-harvest of [[Expendable Clone
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED|Gundam SEED]]'' derives much of its drama from the fact that
* In ''[[Gundam Wing]]'', all of the Winner family's children {{spoiler|(except Quatre)}} were test tube babies, due to the then-current difficulties of natural birth in space.
* The Abh from ''[[Crest of the Stars]]'' are all
* In the [[Needs More Love|(little known)]] anime ''[[Himawari]]!'', most of the ninjas, {{spoiler|including the title character}}, are test tube babies, designed to be perfect ninja.
* Ayanami Rei and Nagisa Kaworu from ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' fit this trope, minus the whole metaphysical mumbo jumbo that accompanies them and their superpowers, of course.
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* In ''The Court Of The Air'', female slaves in Cassarabia ''wish'' their wombs were used to incubate this trope, and not the [[Biological Mashup]] monstrosities which the local bio-wizards dream up.
* In [[S.M. Stirling]]'s [[The Draka|Domination of the Draka]] series, the Draka, starting in the late 20th Century, gene-engineer their own babies for physical strength, speed and endurance, their serfs' babies for docility, all babies for intelligence. By the 25th Century humanity in the solar system has split into two distinct species, which by design are not interfertile: ''Homo drakensis'' and ''Homo servus.'' The ''drakensis'' are designed for war and survival, almost impossible to kill, do not age physically after the age of 25, and exude pheromones they can use to emotionally dominate ''servus'' and unmodified ''Homo sapiens.'' (They're also constantly horny, incredibly sexy, and universally bisexual.) A Draka female, ordinarily sterile, is still capable of bearing their own babies, if she takes a month to get her uterus up and running by biofeedback techiques, but it is considered perverse; all ''drakensis'' are gestated by implanting fertilized ova into ''servus'' host-mothers, or mechanical "orthowombs."
* In ''The Fifth Sacred Thing,'' by Starhawk, post-eco-apocalypse southern California is ruled by a high-tech religious dictatorship with several genetically engineered slave-
* In the ''[[Humanx Commonwealth]]'' universe, the outlawed [[Evilutionary Biologist
* The inhabitants of Sulva (Earth's Moon) are said to be born this way in [[That Hideous Strength]]. Apparently they can only be turned on by [[Sex Bot|sexbots]] and therefore can't make babies the normal way.
* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s novel ''Friday'', human society has learned to grow custom-tailored humans and other creatures; these are known as "Artificial Persons" if they are superficially human and "Living Artifacts" if they are clearly not human. Both are subject to a great deal of [[Fantastic Racism]]; the eponymous protagonist is an AP and suffers from a crushing inferiority neurosis because of it.
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* In ''[[Honor Harrington]]'', Manpower, Inc. specializes in these. Everything from technicians to miners to jugglers and ''entertainers''. Skrags in the backstory are a mix of Gattaca Baby and [[Transhuman]], with the nastiest containing so many artificial improvements they were sterile and long dead. Many characters are actually somewhat 'Genie' as Honor herself. But due to the horror of the Skrags, anything Transhuman is looked down on. The new Arc is a war between Transhumanists and baselines that started as a break in philosophy.
* In ''[[Infinity Beach]]'', genetic engineering is common. The main character, Kimberly, is a clone of her older sister Emily.
* In [[Kevin J. Anderson]]'s ''[[Blindfold]]'', the Truthsayers are a group of genetically-engineered people trained from birth with the use of the [[Meaningful Name|Veritas]] drug, which temporarily increases their brains' receptive abilities, allowing them to detect another brain's EM impulses (i.e. [[Psychic Powers|read thoughts]]). While it is possible for a normal person to use the drug, the results are unpredictable. There is also the fact that it is a gross violation of privacy. Since the Truthsayers have no familial or genetic ties to anyone outside their group, they are used as [[Living Lie Detector
* [[SL Viehl]]'s ''[[Stardoc]]'' series follows a young female doctor named Cherijo Torin, who discovers in the first novel that she is a genetically-modified clone of her "father", who eventually wanted to marry her. That's right, not only did he want to [[Screw Yourself|screw himself]] (and later novels indicate that he already did that with his ''male'' clones) but he wanted to do it with someone he raised as his daughter. Cherijo (who name is, actually, an acronym meaning [[Fun with Acronyms|"Comprehensive Human Enhancement Research ID: J Organism"]]) discovers that she is immune to any disease, as her body actively fights against any foreign organism in her (which causes problems when she {{spoiler|gets pregnant}}), and has a [[Healing Factor]] (in a later novel, she is perfectly willing to throw herself from a big height in order to get a winged friend to save her, even though her colleague later points out that, while her body would probably heal, any brain damage would be permanent).
** Oh, and genetic engineering is forbidden in human space ({{spoiler|except by her "father", who has helped to pass the law and received special dispensation}}), and any "freak" is to be caught and executed as a [[What Measure Is a Non-Human?|non-person]]. When the colony finds out that she is a clone, some of the [[Jerkass]] characters immediately start calling her "it", claiming that her "intelligence" is merely an imitation programmed into her.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* In ''[[Blake's
* Ransik's villain motivation in ''[[Power Rangers Time Force]]'' is that, in the year 3000, he was a [[Mutants|mutant]] instead of a designer baby like everyone else, and was a pariah growing up. In fact, all of the [[Monster of the Week|Monsters of the Week]] are mutant accidents.
* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' episode "The Doctor's Daughter", {{spoiler|there's an entire society created by machines which spilt one persons cells into a sets of haploid cells and recombines them to make a new adult in seconds.}}
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* In the ''[[Star Trek]]'' franchise, Earth suffers a terrible series of Eugenics Wars in the [[Twenty Minutes Into the Future|near future]] between normal humans and genetic "augments." By the logic that "superior ability breeds superior ambition," these young [[ubermensch]] all tend to suffer a [[Take Over the World|Napoleon complex,]] leading them to war not just with mankind, but with each other. Humanity wins, with the lasting result that [[No Transhumanism Allowed|genetic engineering of human beings is outlawed and held in universal contempt for centuries afterward.]] The two most well known augments in Trek are Kirk's archnemesis Khan Noonien Singh; and [[Deep Space Nine]]'s doctor Julian Bashir, who was augmented illegally.
* In ''[[Century City]]'', a fertility specialist is sued for having his clients babies turn out gay.
* Played with a lot on ''[[The X-Files]]''. There are many attempts to make a human/alien hybrid. Most notable was Emily, Scully's {{spoiler|daughter}}, who ends up dying soon after she meets her. And though many attemps are made, nothing sticks. All the hybrids die. This becomes a problem when Scully conceives William, who is what everyone involved in the conspiracy has been
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** '''Humanity''' as a whole is moving towards this. By the twenty-second century, genetic engineering has advanced to the point where the [[We Will Have Perfect Health in the Future|majority of genetic disorders have been cured]]. Governments provide free screening and genetic modification to prospective parents, and as a result everything from near-sightedness to cystic fibrosis has been cured. While IVF is the preferred method of modification, it can also be done on embryos and newborns out of respect for personal belief.
* The Sivadians in [[OtherSpace]] have taken genetic modification in two directions. First, to create beautiful, intelligent, athletic offspring. Second, to create specialized slaves, designed to be [[Wolverine|the best there is at what they do]] to better serve their masters.
* In ''[[The Sims 3]]: Into the Future'', it is possible to “Engineer a Baby” with other Sims in the future world of Oasis Landing.
== Web Original ==
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[[Category:Alien Tropes]]
[[Category:Older Than Television]]
[[Category:Transhuman Tropes]]
[[Category:Designer Babies]]
[[Category:Creation Tropes]]
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