This is one time, dear minons, that I don't have the answer.

Welcome Future Minions!

This news story sparked a rant in me that cannot be contained--hence, the double edition.

Parents using surgery and biomedical technology to keep their developmentally disabled child from reaching physical maturity.

Unsettling.

I understand their reasons for doing it. I absolutely understand that they want to be able to continue to provide care for their child and still find a balance between what she needs and will need and the physical toll it will take on them. They want assurance that their child will be taken care of in the best possible way, and they want to do it for as long as they are able.

And yet I am still made uneasy by it.

Where could this lead us in the future?

Maybe parents who wanted a boy will engineer one from their baby girl.

Maybe a boy who takes after his short mother could be subjected to limb-lengthening surgery and growth hormones, so he'll be big and tall like his dad.

Maybe a girl who gets a little too curvy when she hits adolescence will be stripped of the sources of the hormones driving her development.

You always wanted a gymnast in the family? We'll keep that girl petite and small-breasted with long arms and legs.

You always wanted a linebacker son? We'll grow a big one, with shoulders wide as train tracks and an extra-thick skull. We can even shorten the tendons around his joints, for extra strength.

This child is not perfect? If we can't fix her, we'll keep her small and easier to manage, so she'll use less resources.

You wanted a light skinned child?

You wanted a child who looks less ethnic?

You wanted blue eyes?

Maybe we should step back from all the wondrous advances our keen collective intellect has brought forth and allow nature and Darwinism to take its course. Maybe we should choose to focus our efforts on other areas that need attention, like curing cancer and AIDS, and putting a halt to human and animal abuse, and cleaning our environment, and PREVENTING birth defects, not fixing them.

This is one time, dear minions, that I don't have the answer.

But my gut tells me bio-engineering isn't it.