Couples undergoing fertility treatment are being offered genetic tests on their embryos to forecast the future health of the child [1] as part of a new industry that has raised the spectre of eugenics.
Private companies that offer “polygenic testing” screen embryos produced by in vitro fertilisation and give predictions of the risk of certain types of cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
Genomic Prediction, the first company to offer such tests commercially, initially predicted the likelihood that a child would be short or suffer an intellectual disability but discontinued the service amid concerns over eugenics.
It now focuses on forecasts of future health, telling would-be parents that its tests “give your child the best possible chance of a healthier life”. It boasts that screening could allow parents to choose the embryo with “nearly 50 per cent less risk of heart attack, 42 per cent less chance of type two diabetes”. Clients pay a $1,000 setup fee and then $400 per embryo tested.
A recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine said that the forecasts were unreliable. They added that “Historical eugenic policies that sought to eliminate people deemed ‘feeble minded’ or otherwise socially ‘unfit’ make embryo selection for educational attainment, income, intelligence and related traits deeply concerning”.