A US startup is offering to help wealthy couples screen their unborn babies for IQ using controversial technology that calls into question the ethics of genetic enhancement.
The company, Heliospect Genomics, has worked with more than a dozen couples undergoing in vitro fertilization, according to undercover video footage. According to the recordings, the company pitched its services for up to $50,000 (about £38,000) to customers who wanted to test 100 embryos, allowing some parents to predict their future prospects based on genetic predictions of intelligence. They claim they supported the child’s choices. Managers boasted that their methods increased IQ points by more than 6 points.
Experts say the development is an ethical minefield.
This information emerged from a video recording made by the campaign group Hope Not Hate, which undercover another group of activists and academics. The Guardian reviewed the recording and conducted further investigation with Hope Not Hate.
The footage appears to show an experimental genetic selection technique being promoted to prospective parents. Employees who help Heliospect recruit customers are told that couples can have up to 100 fetuses based on “IQ and other coveted naughty traits” such as gender, height, risk of obesity, risk of mental illness, etc. Explained how to rank.
The company says its predictive tool was built using data provided by the UK Biobank. The UK Biobank is a taxpayer-funded repository of genetic material donated by 500,000 British volunteers, with the aim of only sharing data for projects ‘in the public interest’. There is.
British law does not allow embryos to be selected on the basis of predicted high IQs. Although legal in the United States, where embryology is less regulated, IQ screening is not yet commercially available.
When asked for comment, Heliospect executives said the company is incorporated in the United States and operates within all applicable laws and regulations. They said Heliospect was in “stealth mode” ahead of its planned public launch and was still developing the service. They added that customers who screen fewer embryos will be charged about $4,000, and that the price at launch will be in line with competitors.
Leading geneticists and bioethicists said the project raises a number of moral and medical questions.
asked Duggan Wells, professor of reproductive genetics at the University of Oxford. I feel that this is a discussion that the public does not have the opportunity to fully participate in at this time. ”
“One of the biggest problems is the perpetuation of the idea of ’good’ and ‘bad’ genetics,” said Katie Hasson, associate director of the Center for Genetics and Society in California. insisted. The deployment of such technology “reinforces the idea that inequality has biological rather than social causes,” she said.
“Free from disease, wise and healthy”
For Michael Christensen, Heliospect’s Danish CEO and former financial market trader, genetic selection promises a bright future. “Everyone can have all the kids they want, basically disease-free, smart, healthy kids. It’s going to be amazing,” he said in a November 2023 video call. I boasted about it.
Listening to his pitch was an undercover Hope Not Hate researcher posing as a UK-based professional looking to start a family. Through several online meetings, the team announced a “polygenic scoring” service. Heliospect does not offer in vitro fertilization, but uses algorithms to analyze genetic data provided by parents and predict specific traits in individual embryos.
The team provided a guided tour of the test website, which is not yet publicly available. During their presentation, they claimed that choosing the “smartest” embryo out of 10 would lead to an average IQ improvement of more than 6 points, but depending on personal preference, it could be a matter of height, obesity or acne. It was argued that other characteristics such as risk may take precedence.
Ultimately, Christensen says, the advent of lab-grown eggs will allow couples to create 1,000 or even a million embryos on an industrial scale, from which a selection of the best embryos will be available. I expected that I would be able to choose.
In the future, he speculated, the service could be expanded to include personality types, such as providing scores for traits he calls the “Dark Triad.” The Dark Triad typically refers to Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy. Christensen said it might also be possible to develop scores for depression and creativity. “Beauty is actually something that a lot of people ask about,” he said.
Asked for comment, Heliospect said it does not condone the production or elite selection of eggs or embryos on an industrial scale, nor does it plan to offer tests for “dark triad” traits or beauty.
Jonathan’s anomaly. Photo: YouTube
Among the company’s senior staff is the academic Jonathan Anomaly, whose controversial advocacy of what he calls “liberal eugenics” Mr. Anomaly, a former Oxford University fellow who left his academic job in Ecuador last year to work full-time at Heliospect, advises the company on media strategy and recruits investors and clients based in the United States and Europe. He says he supported him.
Mr. Anomaly is a well-known figure in the growing transatlantic movement promoting the development of tools of genetic selection and enhancement, which he says should not be confused with state-sponsored coercive eugenics. says. “What[liberal eugenics]is saying is that parents should be free and even encouraged to use technology to improve their children’s futures when technology becomes available. That’s it,” he said on The Dissenter podcast.
Heliospect was granted access to UK Biobank data in June 2023. Established in 2006 by the Department of Health and medical research charities, the biobank stores genetic information, brain scans, cognitive tests, educational and medical records of 500,000 volunteers who have signed up to share. Data over their lifetime. It is believed that the anonymized data shared will lead to breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
In its access application, Heliospect said it wanted to use advanced technology to improve predictions of “complex properties.” Screening of embryos for commercial use is not disclosed, and IQ is not mentioned. Contacted by the Guardian, the company said cognitive abilities and intellectual disabilities were within its scope.
UK Biobank said Heliospect’s use of the data appeared to be “fully consistent with our access conditions”.
Fertility treatment is highly regulated in the UK, with tests carried out on embryos legally limited to a list of serious health conditions approved by regulators.
In one of the recordings, the Heliospect team shows a UK-based couple requesting genetic data for their future child, accidentally generated during testing of approved embryos, to be sent overseas for analysis. seemed to suggest that it might be legally possible. They also advised that an easier option might be to travel to the US for IVF, and said they would abide by domestic regulations.
Heliospect’s founders claimed that by the end of 2023, they had already analyzed the embryos of five couples, helped them select them, and then implanted them through in vitro fertilization. “We’re having a baby,” Christensen said.
When contacted, Heliospect said the company specializes in genomic predictive tools that can be applied to embryo screening and adult testing, and that its authorized access to UK Biobank data allows it to develop these products in a scientifically rigorous manner. He said that it is valuable in doing so. It said it was not trying to circumvent the UK’s regulations on embryo testing and did not require companies to disclose the precise commercial application of their research. The organization is committed to addressing concerns about pre-implantation screening through public education, policy debate and informed debate about this technology, as it strongly believes this technology has the potential to help people. He said he supports it.
In response to questions, Anomaly said that as a philosophy professor he has published provocative papers aimed at stimulating debate, and that “liberal eugenics” is an accepted term in the academic field of bioethics. He said that there is.
The decision to grant access to Heliospect raises questions about the ethical standards that apply when granting research access to UK Biobank. Its management has come under scrutiny after Thursday’s Guardian newspaper revealed that a “race science” research group claimed to have obtained the data.
Professor Hank Greeley, a bioethicist at Stanford University, said: “British Biobank and the UK government may want to think more seriously about whether they need to impose any new restrictions.”
Professor Rory Collins, chief executive of UK Biobank, said in a statement: “UK Biobank… has confirmed that analysis of our data is only used for the approved purpose of generating genetic risk scores for specific diseases, and we are considering its use. We report preimplantation screening results in accordance with relevant regulations in the United States, where Heliospect is based. This is fully consistent with our access conditions. By making data available, UK Biobank enables discoveries that would not otherwise be possible, saving lives and preventing disability and misery. ”
