Various experts are divided over the concept of custom-designed babies offered by various fertility clinics. Some experts believe that it is immoral to use science in this way

Dr. Jeff Steinberg, running clinics in Manhattan and Los Angeles, says that within six months he plans to let customers choose their baby's eye, hair, and even skin color.

He said that the capability to offer such services had been around for years, but had been ignored by the medical community.

The clinic's website says: "Not all patients will qualify for these tests and we make NO guarantees as to 'perfect prediction' of things such as eye colour or hair colour."

But Dr Gillian Lockwood, a UK fertility expert and member of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists' said: "If it gets to the point where we can decide which gene or combination of genes are responsible for blue eyes or blonde hair, what are you going to do with all those other embryos that turn out like me to be ginger with green eyes?"

Josephine Quintavalle of Comment on Reproductive Ethics said: "This is the inevitable slippery slope of a fertility process which results in many more embryos being created than can be implanted. Choices will always have to be made. Do you choose octuplets or the ones with the prettiest noses?"