DNA screening to help choose life partners

In the future, men and women may rely on their genetic compatibility to choose their life partners rather than through a fickle emotion such as love.

Besides, the falling cost of DNA testing would prompt young people to pay to access their entire genetic code within five or 10 years, according to Armand Leroi, a leading British scientist and professor at Imperial College London.

While it was unlikely people will have the "luxury" of using the technology to design babies, by their intellect or eye colour, they would instead focus on stopping genetic diseases, reports the Telegraph.

Addressing a session, at the Euroscience Open Forum 2012, Dublin, Leroi said the cost of genetic sequencing was falling so quickly that "it is going to become very, very accessible, very, very soon." The cost of doing a complete genetic map of a person has fallen from $1 billion more than a decade ago to about $4,000.

He said eugenics were already available, with tens of thousands of unborn babies with Down's syndrome and other illnesses being aborted every year. He told the conference on Thursday: "These processes are very well established in most European countries."

These possibilities were debated at the Euroscience Open Forum 2012 in Dublin.