Max Headroom Episode 14: Baby Gro Bags

Episode Name: Baby Gro Bags

Premise: Theora's friend Helen arranges to have her baby through OvuVat, a company that creates in vitro babies, but the baby goes missing. Meanwhile, Network 66 tries to lure Bryce away to head up a team of intelligent infants on their show Prodigies.

Themes explored: There is a sense of exploitation of children, even though Network 66's approach is to get permission from parents before featuring their infants on its show -- only it's revealed that OvuVat was taking the sperms and eggs of intelligent parents without their knowledge to clone babies, who are then featured on the show. But even though Network 66 is unaware of OvuVat's practice, there's still a question raised about whether or not a TV show should be focusing on infants in this manner, when these infants are unaware of what is happening.

But a bigger theme gets touched upon regardng OvuVat's process in the first place. Not only does in vitro fertilization being the process of developing the baby, but the entire process is handled from start to finish without the need to put a fertilized egg in a woman's womb. On top of that, parents can choose the sex of the baby and it's free of any defects, diseases or any other complications that could arise during a pregnancy.

For those who have issues with in vitro fertilization as a means of having a baby, imagine what issues you would have if the baby can be developed from start to finish outside a womb. And imagine the ethical issues that might be raised from determing a baby's sex upon conception and a process that ensures no defects. How far do we want to go when it comes to science and genetics, even if it means assuring people who want to have a baby that the baby will be perfect after nine months and the mother won't have to worry about carrying that fetus to term?

And the idea of developing the perfect child from start to finish becomes the opportunity for OvuVat to exploit those parents who wish to use this process, to develop babies who are used for another purpose. It's enough to make you wonder how good of an idea it is to explore childbirth methods other than the way they developed through nature.

Max Headroom quotes:
"I have a mission, too! My mission is to sink the Prodigies show!"
"You can't push your children too hard. It isn't exploitation to breed a champion."
"Here I am on Network 23 to give you my own show. Nothing big, nothing special. Just a humble little thing modestly entitled: Me, Max Headroom, the original prodigy."
"Here we come back for just one more meaningless scene to keep you watching through the commercials." (Here we have Max Headroom breaking the fourth wall.)

Personal observations: This episode never aired in its original run on ABC back in the 1980s, but did make its way into the rotation when it aired on cable television. It's worth tracking down, though, because it does raise ethical issues involved with how far we should go with science when it comes to the process of childbirth.