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Designer Babies (view source)

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== Anime & Manga ==
* That's a big part of the premise behind ''[[Saber Marionette J (Anime)|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 (Animemanga)|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|Expendable Clones]].
* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam SEED (Anime)|Gundam SEED]]'' derives much of its drama from the fact that [[Designer Babies]] (Coordinators) exist alongside naturally-born humans (Naturals), leading to racial strife and outright warfare. Though the Coordinators actually are more like designer babies, they still grow in a mothers womb and but are genetically modified shortly after conception (not before). The one true Gattaca Baby is {{spoiler|Kira, who was grown in an artificial womb and free of the influence of a mothers hormones during pregnancy thus the 'perfect' Coordinator}}.
* 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 [[Designer Babies]]. Most embryos are created in a lab, but some are created naturally and then later taken out and adjusted in a lab. These "love children" are seen as a beneficial and generally preferred way to reproduce.
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* It is quite heavily implied that {{spoiler|Aoi Hidaka, the main heroine}} of ''[[Dancougar Nova]]'', was born this way.
* In ''[[Utawarerumono]]'', it's eventually revealed that the various [[Petting Zoo People]] actually descend from a vast series of genetic experimentation projects that was undertaken in a hidden underground lab, apparently as part of a project to reclaim the (for some reason) uninhabitable Earth above. Their ancestors were all grown in the titular jars by the human scientists.
* In ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikersStrikerS]]'', Fate, Erio and Subaru are all the products of genetic engineering of one kind or another.
 
 
== Comic Books ==
* In [[Superman]]'s [[Crisis Onon Infinite Earths|post-Crisis]] origin, Kryptonians are born in a "birthing matrix". Jor-El attached a star drive to Kal-El's. This essentially allowed Superman to be "born" on Earth, which was coupled with a severe winter which isolated their farm for months that allowed the Kents to claim he was their natural son and eliminated all the hassle adoption of a foundling would entail in the modern world. It also allowed for an alternate future storyline where Superman is elected President of the United States, which only people born in the United States can do. This has [[Retcon|since been undone]].
* ''[[Y the Last Man|Y: The Last Man]]''. After virtually the entire male population (human and animal) dies off, finding a way of cloning the surviving women (and eventually men) becomes the only way of saving the human race.
* [[Marvel Comics]]' Thundra came from a future [[Lady Land]] [[Dystopia]] where babies are engineered in the "Temple of Genetics".
 
 
== Fanfiction ==
* Like in ''[[Cthulhu Tech]]'', the first Nazzadi are this in ''[[Aeon Entelechy Evangelion (Fanfic)|Aeon Entelechy Evangelion]]''. Concerning the 'fic itself, unlike in the [[Cthulhu Tech]], the Migou didn't stop making new Nazzadi after the mass defection, they just genetically made them better than the traitors and most importantly, absolutely loyal.
* ''[[Friends of a Solar Empire (Fanfic)|Friends of a Solar Empire]]'' gives us {{spoiler|Twilight Sparkle}}.
 
 
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== Literature ==
* An early example is ''[[Brave New World (Literaturenovel)|Brave New World]]'' by Aldous Huxley, making it [[Older Than Television]]. Babies are "grown" here too (and "decanted" rather than "born"), though this was before the development of modern genetics, so they must resort to more complicated and organic means than flipping genetic switches to create their hereditary castes.
* [[Utopia]] Example: ''Herland'', by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The titular land is a [[Mary Suetopia|utopia]] because it is inhabited ''only'' by women, who can reproduce parthenogenically (without a male), and without genetic diversity/contamination, only pass amiable, peaceful, and otherwise perfect (boring) personality genes onto their offspring.
** Though it's really more an example of eugenics than designer babies. Women who are considered a danger to society are not allowed to breed.
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** Interestingly, at least one job that is assumed to be Spec-only can be done by an extremely-skilled Natural. This is shown in the novel where a Natural becomes a starship navigator, a job that requires one to memorize the multidimensional (about 18D) map of the galaxy and be able to plot a safe and fast course through FTL. He turns out to be a pretty good navigator, despite his preference for wearing skirts (not [[Insistent Terminology|kilts]]).
** The protagonist mentions that, by law, every Spec has a right to remove his or her specialization. However, in practice, this never happens. For one, each Spec loves his or her job. And two, many changes are simply irreversible.
* In ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|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|Living Lie Detectors]]. Their verdict in court cases is final. However, not all trainees become Truthsayers, meaning the genetically-engineered process is not perfect.
* [[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 Withwith 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.
* ''[[My SistersSister's Keeper]]'' features an extremely mild version of this. Anna was genetically engineered to be an exact donor match for her cancer-stricken older sister Kate. The main plot of the book is Anna suing her parents to escape having to donate a kidney to Kate.
* C.J. Cherryh's ''[[Alliance Union (Literature)|Alliance Union]]'' universe has the Union using genetically engineered "azi" to rapidly increase their population, azi are separated into castes designated by Greek letters (with alphas being geniuses) but the differences in intelligence don't necessarily breed true when they are freed and have children.
* Basically the premise of ''[[Replica]]''.
 
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* 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.}}
* ''[[Space Above and Beyond|Space: Above and Beyond]]'' had "Tanks", vat-grown, genetically selected humans made to fill a worldwide labor shortage after a partial [[Depopulation Bomb]], and then abandoned when no longer needed. Naturally, they are the target of [[Fantastic Racism|prejudice and stereotype]].
* In one episode of ''[[Picket Fences]]'', it's discovered that a reproductive services clinic is gestating human babies inside of cows. One infertile woman who has contracted for her child to be grown this way says that this is done to bypass the legal minefields associated with hiring a human surrogate mother. ("I own the cow!") Subverted in that nothing is said about selecting for superior genetic traits, and the use of cows as surrogates is voluntary on the part of the parents, albeit done in secret to avoid controversy.
* In the ''[[Star Trek (Franchise)|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|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 after--a human alien hybrid gestated naturally. And why the hype? After realizing that their deal with the aliens has gone south and {{spoiler|the world will be taken over by an alien virus in 2012}}, the good guys seek to use William to find a way to stop that from happening. The bad guys want to stop the good guys. Which equals ''many'' near-death experiences for itty bitty William.
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* ''[[Paranoia]]'', in which everyone's a clone. Six times over, in fact.
** Well, sort of... some times. In early editions there were clone families of six that were decanted and raised in the same environment, and treated more or less as one person. This did not make sense (not that Alpha Complex ever does), as we're left wondering where the other 5 are most of the time (it was occasionally addressed, but mostly just left off-camera). Later editions have it so every citizen is, theoretically, cloned when they die (except traitors that have earned an erasure), but the red tape delays it to the point of never happening, but Troubleshooters have six immediate backups because they are in highly lethal situations, but with important missions that must be completed. Higher ups tend to buy more packs of six clones when needed, and Ultraviolets are so important the Computer gives them an essentially infinite number of quick clones. This still doesn't make sense, but in a way that works.
* In ''[[Battle TechBattleTech]]'', the 'trueborn warriors' of the Clans are an entire caste of [[Super Soldier|super soldiers]] who are created this way, descendants of the 600 loyalists who served Nicolai Kerensky after the SLDF exodus led by his father collapsed into anarchy. Only those who have proven themselves in battle have the honor of having their 'genetic legacy' preserved in the breeding program; between this and being raised in [[The Spartan Way]], perhaps only one trueborn in a hundred actually has any descendants (at least in the warrior caste itself), especially since they are considered to be over the hill at 35.
 
 
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== Video Games ==
* An old DOS game called ''Gender Wars'' plays off this trope - in the game world, human males and females are embroiled in a literal battle of the sexes, each intent on exterminating the other. Because traditional reproduction is effectively banned, each side uses artificial means of conception and incubation to maintain their populations. The twist, of course, is that neither side possesses the means to reproduce without "help" from the other; the males routinely attack female storage facilities to steal frozen eggs, while the females do the same to male bases to obtain sperm samples.
* In ''[[Prototype (Videovideo Gamegame)|Prototype]]'' Hunters-a [[Giant Mook]] superhuman mutant-are grown from normal humans by being stuffed into sacs or water towers flooded with [[The Virus|the Blacklight virus]]. Hunters do not screw, they'd rather fight.
* Miranda Lawson from ''[[Mass Effect 2 (Video Game)|Mass Effect 2]]'' is one of these. Her father is wealthy and influential man, thus his desire to create a genetically-modified specimen, a daughter with superhuman abilities, intelligence, and, ahem [[Incredibly Lame Pun|"talented"]] in every way. {{spoiler|The same goes for her twin sister as well.}}
** It seems that Daddy may have {{spoiler|put in some "[[DRM|Fabrication Rights Management]]" into Miranda, as the dossier on her that the Shadow Broker has indicates she may be infertile.}} Wonderful guy, her dad.
** Grunt is another example, designed to be a [[Super Soldier]] even by [[Proud Warrior Race Guy|krogan]] standards. Thanks to [[Neural Implanting]], he's "born" with the body and vocabulary of a young adult but no sense of place or direction (enter the player character...).
** '''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 Thethe 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 [[OtherspaceOtherSpace]] 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.
 
 
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== Web Comics ==
* Dr. Bunnigus from ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'' was a Gattaca Baby as the result of eugenic laws; her inbred and mentally limited parents were required to improve their child, so they gave her a genius IQ and a stripper's body. Her first name, [[Tomboyish Name|Edward]], is because the parents read "E.D." on her genetic profile (for Exotic Dancer) and thought Ed was her proposed name; wanting to show class, they went with the full name "Edward" instead. What's more, she's black (or some brownish ethnicity), and they're both white hillbillies, so apparently their many social problems did not include racism.
* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', {{spoiler|All four kids are revealed to be these, John and Jade being made from Grandpa's and Nana's combined DNA, and Rose and Dave being made from Mom's and Bro's. According to the trolls, anyone who's destined to play Sburb is created in this manner.}}
** In the same sequence, it's revealed that {{spoiler|the Guardians (Grandpa, Nana, Mom, and Bro) are all clones ''of themselves''. It's not clear from what, if any, source the genetic material of the kids destined to play the game comes, but it seems to some degree to be tailored to success at Sburb.}}
* [[Freefall (Webcomic)|Winston Thurmad]] was born to well-meaning parents who were convinced that humanity was going to be living exclusively in space by the time he grew up, so they splurged on all manner of genetic modifications optimized for life in zero-G. Most of them are internal modifications to protect against various forms of atrophy and otherwise optimize him for life on a spacecraft, but he can't grow hair either.
* [[Word of God]] explanation for Rhonda in ''[[Umlaut House]] 2'', who has [[Homosexual Reproduction|two biological fathers]]. A throwaway line by her grandmother towards the end of the first series implied that this is fairly common in their era.
 
 
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Exo Squad (Animation)|Exo Squad]]'' has an interesting reversal. While humans are born naturally, the Genetically-engineered Neosapiens are artificially grown by the "brood." At the end of the series, one of the Neosapiens, Marsala, lobbies with the government to allow the creation of one final brood that's capable of natural breeding.
 
 
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