{"id":433506,"date":"2025-09-18T11:30:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T11:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/433506\/"},"modified":"2025-09-18T11:30:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T11:30:10","slug":"viewpoint-what-happens-when-you-silicon-valley-ify-the-dubious-effort-to-breed-super-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/433506\/","title":{"rendered":"Viewpoint: What happens when you Silicon Valley-ify the dubious effort to breed super children?\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>An understandable ethics outcry greeted\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nucleusgenomics\/status\/1930377807168761978\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the June announcement of a\u00a0<\/a>software platform that offers aspiring parents \u201cgenetic optimization\u201d of\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/a-new-era-of-designer-babies-may-be-based-on-overhyped-science\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">their embryos<\/a>. Touted by Nucleus Genomics\u2019 CEO Kian Sadeghi, the $5,999 service, dubbed \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/mynucleus.com\/embryo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nucleus Embryo<\/a>,\u201d promised optimization of traits like heart disease and cancer resistance, as well as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inc.com\/ben-sherry\/kian-sadeghi-says-nucleus-genomics-can-optimize-embryos-for-intelligence\/91198815\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">intelligence<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/health\/embryo-ivf-screening-longevity-2b1f096a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">longevity<\/a>, body mass index, baldness, eye color, hair color and left-handedness. \u2026<\/p>\n<p>Critics worried that it \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2025\/jun\/19\/genetic-optimization-sparks-outcry-critics-say-embryo-ranking-treats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">treats children as marketable goods<\/a>.\u201d More than one reference to \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/264655\/new-us-embryo-screening-firm-raises-specter-of-designer-babies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">designer babies<\/a>\u201d and \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/futurism.com\/neoscope\/genetics-startup-eugenics-app\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">eugenics<\/a>\u201d naturally followed.\u00a0\u2026<\/p>\n<p>As professional bioethicists, we would have those same concerns\u2014if Nucleus Embryo actually did what it claims. But it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Follow the latest news and policy debates on sustainable agriculture, biomedicine, and other \u2018disruptive\u2019 innovations. Subscribe to our newsletter.<\/p>\n<p>Nucleus Genomics says it offers customers the ability to engage in genetic optimization because the potential parents can select among embryos based on the genetic information that Nucleus Embryo provides. But that isn\u2019t genetic optimization; no embryos or genetic material is optimized in some technologically innovative new way. It\u2019s just old-school preimplantation genetic diagnosis of fertilized embryos, irresponsibly expanded to offer prospective parents the illusion of control over things like IQ and mental health when the science isn\u2019t there to support the claims.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scientificamerican.com\/article\/why-genetically-optimizing-embryos-is-misleading-unethical-and-not-even\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">This is an excerpt. Read the original post here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An understandable ethics outcry greeted\u00a0the June announcement of a\u00a0software platform that offers aspiring parents \u201cgenetic optimization\u201d of\u00a0their embryos.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433507,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3846],"tags":[267,70,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-433506","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-genetics","8":"tag-genetics","9":"tag-science","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115225076038390578","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433506","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433506"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433506\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433507"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433506"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433506"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433506"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}