Choosing Smart Embryos Isn't Immoral

Let's say you're a fertility doctor advising would-be parents who have exactly two viable embryos ready for implantation. The parents want to implant only one embryo. This is not an uncommon scenario; more than 71,000 babies were born in the U.S. via assisted reproduction in 2016.

- Ronald Bailey

For several decades now, folks using in vitro fertilization (IVF) have also tested for the single genes associated with certain heritable genetic diseases (such as cystic fibrosis, Huntington’s disease, or hemophilia) and chromosomal abnormalities (such as those that cause Down syndrome). Nearly three-quarters of Americans approve of this pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) testing for diseases that are fatal early in life, according to a 2015 survey in the Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics, and two-thirds support it for conditions that cause lifelong disability.

But let’s say that in the case of these two embryos, you have more information. Perhaps test results indicate that both embryos are physically healthy but also suggest that one of them is five times less likely to complete college than the other. Or perhaps the only discernible difference between the two embryos is a higher likelihood of coronary disease, which manifests late in life and is typically manageable with medication.

Stephen Hsu, vice president for research at the New Jersey genetic testing startup Genomic Prediction, raises hypotheticals like these and asks, “Do you tell the parents this information?”