Thursday, March 18, 2010

Designer babies: 1661

How well coloured and fair Children may be begotten.

Great is the affection of the mind, or force of imagination, but greatest of all when it exceeds: what is it you may not do almost by it? Women when they are with Child, when they desire most eagerly, think of it vehemently, they change the spirits within, and in them are painted forms of the things they thought of; those move the blood, whereupon in the softest matter of the Child they imprint the form...
--From Eighteen books of the secrets of art and nature--

Changing the child in the womb so they appeal to the superficial whims of parents: an issue that society never dealt with before the advent genetic engineering!

2 comments:

Pete said...

So neurotic parents seeking perfect children as early as the womb aren't a new thing?

Jason (the commenter) said...

This books also described women surrounding themselves with paintings and sculptures of pretty babies, hoping what they saw would make their babies perfect. The author warned that sometimes these women birthed monsters.