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A fertility start-up that promises to screen embryos to give would-be parents their “best baby” has come under fire for a “misuse of science”.
Nucleus Genomics describes its mission as “IVF for genetic optimisation”, offering advanced embryo testing that allows parents to not only screen for their child’s chance of certain diseases but also to predict autism, IQ and eye colour.
The company has plastered signs reading “Have your best baby” in New York subway stations, with the claim that “height is 80 per cent genetic”.
Preimplantation genetic screening of embryos has been part of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment for decades. Testing for some inheritable diseases has become routine practice in US clinics but in the UK regulations strictly limit its use to fatal or life-limiting conditions.
What Nucleus claims to be offering goes beyond standard embryo viability screening: assessing embryos for genetic markers of more than 2,000 possible hereditary conditions, such as chronic diseases and the risk of cancer, as well as predictions on certain traits, such as intelligence.
Nucleus promotes a $30,000 programme, IVF+, which includes full DNA...