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It's the unmentionable physical act that's inspired generations of musicians, artists, writers and reality television stars.

But it turns out that procreative sex might soon be a distant memory as humanity ditches nookie and produces babies using more predictable scientific methods.

Henry Greely, a professor of law and genetics at Stanford University, has penned a book called The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction in which he claims that within "twenty, maybe forty, years most people in developed countries will stop having sex for the purpose of reproduction".

Rather than introducing sperm to egg through the sweaty and often awkward rigamole of rumpy-pumpy, couples will instead head down to a laboratory where a scientist will make a baby for them.

(Image: Rex Features)

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"When a couple wants a baby, he'll provide sperm and she'll provide a punch of skin," Greely told the Sunday Times.

Stem cells will then be produced from the skin, ordered to turn into eggs and used to make babies, freeing prospective parents from worrying about boring old things like orgasms and sexy underwear.

Just like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World , sex will be strictly recreational and enjoyed as a hobby like topiary or stamp-collecting, rather than being used to make bambinos.

What's more, the human species will be able to stamp out nasty diseases as well as afflictions like ugliness, stupidity or eyebrows that meet in the middle.

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Rather than relying on nature to randomly select their child's attributes, mums and dads will be able to customise their child as if they were building a computer.

They will be presented with embryos and told about how it is likely to perform, allowing them to know exactly how clever, attractive and healthy their bespoke baby is likely to be.

"We won't be able to say: 'this child is in the top 1% of intelligence,'" Greely added.

"We will probably be able to to say: 'this child has a 60% chance of being in the top half.'"

(Image: MMX NEW LINE PRODUCTIONS, INC.)

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Greely said it was unlikely that bespoke child-rearing would only be offered to the rich aristocratic upper classes, meaning custom kids could be offered as a matter of course.

He said the cost of treating illness is so high, that giving birth to a sickly child would become a monumental "stigma", particularly in countries like Britain where taxpayers fund the treatment of children.

Currently, it is unclear whether lab-born babies will be offered on a 'try before you buy' basis or whether distance selling regulations will grant parents a no-questions-asked right to return within 14 days, should they purchase one over the internet.