US Startup Charging Couples To 'Screen Embryos For IQ'

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: A US startup company is offering to help wealthy couples screen their embryos for IQ using controversial technology that raises questions about the ethics of genetic enhancement. The company, Heliospect Genomics, has worked with more than a dozen couples undergoing IVF, according to undercover video footage. The recordings show the company marketing its services at up to $50,000 for clients seeking to test 100 embryos, and claiming to have helped some parents select future children based on genetic predictions of intelligence. Managers boasted their methods could produce a gain of more than six IQ points. [...]

The footage appears to show experimental genetic selection techniques being advertised to prospective parents. A Heliospect employee, who has been helping the company recruit clients, outlined how couples could rank up to 100 embryos based on "IQ and the other naughty traits that everybody wants," including sex, height, risk of obesity and risk of mental illness. The startup says its prediction tools were built using data provided by UK Biobank, a taxpayer-funded store of genetic material donated by half a million British volunteers, which aims to only share data for projects that are "in the public interest".

Selecting embryos on the basis of predicted high IQ is not permitted under UK law. While it is legal in the US, where embryology is more loosely regulated, IQ screening is not yet commercially available there. Asked for comment, managers at Heliospect said the company, which is incorporated in the US, operated within all applicable law and regulations. They said Heliospect was in "stealth mode" before a planned public launch and was still developing its service. They added that clients who screened fewer embryos were charged about $4,000, and that pricing on launch would be in line with competitors. Leading geneticists and bioethicists said the project raised a host of moral and medical issues.

IVF may not be legal in the US after the 2024 elec

[clay_buster]

The GOP is calling for the end of IVF.

Re:

[ebunga]

Did you see what the State of Alabama did? They literally banned IVF.

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[iggymanz]

GOP split on that and Trump supports it

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[Valgrus Thunderaxe]

Yes, Trump supports IVF.

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[SNRatio]

GOP is split and Trump supports it - until after this election. After that GOP will go state by state and Trump won't care one way or the other unless someone pays him to.

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[JBeretta]

GOP is split and Trump supports it - until after this election. After that GOP will go state by state and Trump won't care one way or the other unless someone pays him to.

Oh, now you lefties are fucking mind-readers.... He does one thing and you claim he secretly wants to do the opposite..

TDS assholes...

Re:

[stabiesoft]

And given that Alabama would seek a murder conviction on the 99 embryo's that did not make the cut, I doubt any wealthy person would be doing this in Alabama. I'm not sure I've not read the TX law carefully, but would not surprise me if TX's Paxton would not come after the couple too. The GOP(Donald really) is getting what they asked for. Life begins at embryo. As the old saying goes, careful what you ask for.

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[ozmartian]

But Trump just said the other day that he was "The Father of IVF" in a room full of women. Surely he wouldn't be lying.

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[Hadlock]

IVF is hugely popular on both sides of the asile, I don't think it's going anywhere

Mistake

[fluffernutter]

People with high IQs are known to have worse problems with anxiety and depression. Yet it means very little in terms of potential for success in the world. Don't know why parents would want to do that to a kid.

Re: Mistake

[TJHook3r]

If you want happy kids, just gift them below-average IQ, good strength and an interest in sports and beer. Intelligent people may or may not be prone to medical depression but it sure must be depressing living in late-stage capitalism and still working all hours to survive!

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[timeOday]

Might be easier to select for happiness than intelligence. Or maybe even that rare (according to you) combo of both.

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[alvinrod]

If those traits could also be isolated to specific genes they could also be select for high IQ individuals who dont express those traits. There may be some genes that increase both, but I think it's fairly obvious that the correlation isn't 100%.

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[Whateverthisis]

You clearly have not met an Asian parent.

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[fleeped]

Numbers go brrrr! It's like 90s CPU clock speed for meatbags; finding a stat to brag about

Here comes..

[Kelxin]

The age of sociopaths, or are we already in it?

Re:

[Required Snark]

The answer is yes. See the previous post about Sam Altman's Worldcoin rebranding [slashdot.org]. Also Zuckerberg, Musk, Trump, Putin, Xi Jinping, Modi in India, Orban in Hungary, the murderous Mohammad bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, Netanyahu, the entire government of Iran, Hamas, ...

I could raise IQ by more than 6 points.

[jddj]

Don't give the young'un a smartphone or tablet and keep 'em TF away from Fox "News" and the like.

Honestly if you really want more intelligent kids

[rsilvergun]

Cleaner air and water coupled with free school lunches is a better way to do it. Also more assistance to pregnant women. We cut WIC massively and we slashed the Medicaid resources they rely on. We're going to have some pretty major problems in about 15 years because of that.

Of course the people who cut WIC and Medicare are also going to campaign on tough on crime bullshit so I guess they need it to create a new generation of petty criminals for them to win elections with...

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[Required Snark]

In propaganda politics you don't even need to create a new set of evil doers. In the real world violent crime statistics are down across the board, but Republican hate mongers are still screaming about crime in racist dog-whistle rhetoric.

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[alvinrod]

If the free school lunches are full of HFCS and devoid of any actual nutritional value, they'll probably do more harm than good. The air quality in the U.S. is better now than it was 100 years ago and water quality is generally good as well. There was a previous story about too much fluoride potentially resulting in lower IQ, but the water quality for the average American is also better now than it was 100 years ago.

Your other claim about WIC funding being cut is false. There is lower spending, but that'

Re: Honestly if you really want more intelligent k

[opakapaka]

Cleaner air and water, as well as more self-reliant children, could be realized by reducing and even penalizing dependence on single passenger automobiles for every little thing. However neither Ds nor Rs show any interest in this cultural shift. How depressing.

There's a sucker born every minute

[rsilvergun]

But I wish they'd at least wait for the sucker to be born...

Not technically new, only "socially accepted" new

[test321]

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGS) is available for years, and the potential to use the mutations that are known linked to intelligence is done for years as well https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] DNA sequencing in adults already provide those (supposed) indications on intelligence. It's just very controversial to select embryos based on such criteria, so until now it wasn't presented to parents that way. Maybe regulations evolved (or devolved) such that now the implantation criteria are not anymore con

Parents: No Comment

[cstacy]

The Bashirs were unavailable for comment.

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[93 Escort Wagon]

All that hullabaloo, and it turns out Julian's IQ was only 6 points higher than Miles'...

Snake Oil in the Digital Era

[nehumanuscrede]

I'm surprised they're not claiming to use " AI " to determine an unborn's IQ score :|

I find this quote to be more and more relevant as time goes on:

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know. - Ernest Hemingway

23andMe

[rickkw]

The cycle continues

Barbie Lobotomat Playset

[Pseudonymous Powers]

"Naughty traits?" How has no one commented on that? I was already expecting this story of 21st-century eugenics to be chiiling, but my hair stood up so fast hearing that that my hat came off. And it's knit! That's fucking Missy Mengele shit.

These screened kids are so smart...

[93 Escort Wagon]

I bet they could complete this puzzle:

A ____ and his money are soon ________.

It's too bad they can't figure it out in time to save their gullible parents $50K, though.

I for one welcome our GATTACA future

[oumuamua]

No really, how else are we to compete with robots? https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

Sounds like a scam

[gweihir]

Probably is one...

Catch 23

[az-saguaro]

Waste of money, even if it worked.

Whoever buys it is just plain stoopid for believing it.
So, can't be smart enough to have smart genes to pass on to your kids.
So, if you insist, fill the forms, write the check, do all the p's & q's, then, at the last moment just before you click "Send" or drop it in the mailbox, or whatever, - STOP - you have your answer.
Now tear up the check and buy a condom.

(If you haven't seen or read Joseph Heller's "Catch 22", it is about army fliers in Italy during WWII. They all

Sounds like an upsell at an engagement ring store.

[Smonster]

At this point it is probably mostly taking rich people’s money. But we are not that far off before something like this is feasible.