Nucleus Genomics Markets 20-Embryo 'Best Baby' Screening, Reviving Liberal Eugenics
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Oct 27
Nucleus Genomics Markets 20-Embryo 'Best Baby' Screening, Reviving Liberal Eugenics
1 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 27
Summary
Nucleus Genomics is pitching an IVF package that screens up to 20 embryos for diseases, appearance and traits including strength, longevity, insomnia and male-pattern baldness under a “best baby” message.
Its ads cite figures such as height being 80% genetic and intelligence 50%, but the report says those claims rely on contested population-level estimates that cannot reliably predict an individual child’s outcomes.
The article argues this consumer-focused model revives “liberal eugenics” by shifting selection from state coercion to parental choice, tying the idea of the “best” child to productivity, health optimization and competitive advantage.
Prenatal screening is already widespread in medicine, and the report notes more than 95% of pregnancies in Denmark identified with Down syndrome are terminated, underscoring how disability is increasingly filtered through genetic selection.
The broader warning is that treating embryos as optimization projects narrows human variation and devalues disabled lives, while redirecting attention from building more accommodating societies to trying to engineer better people.