Unnatural Selection: Silicon Valley Tech Giants Create GMO Babies
The choice of IVF embryos based on parameters such as IQ and height has already become a reality in the United States. These opportunities, as well as the service for "assigning" the sex of an unborn child, are actively used by wealthy clients, including Elon Musk, Izvestia journalists found out. Billionaires are investing in the development of commercial technologies for the birth of "improved" children, The Wall Street Journal reported. Izvestia correspondents managed to talk with representatives of the companies mentioned in the scandalous material and learn the details of their work firsthand. Our article explains why American billionaires turned to a Chinese scientist who was the first in the world to "create" children with genetic resistance to HIV, as well as what Elon Musk's father said about the technologies that, according to him, were used to give birth to several of the entrepreneur's children.
Embryo sorting for IVF
An advertising billboard in the New York subway directly suggests: "Give birth to your best child! IQ is 50% dependent on genes! Growth is 80%!" The company offers prospective parents the so-called IVF—plus - the opportunity not only to conceive a child in vitro, but to choose from several according to the desired parameters.
A scandal is breaking out in the United States related to the closed genetic research of human embryos. In November, journalists from The Wall Street Journal published an investigation into the activities of several startups that are developing technologies that allow them to select the most genetically "pure" future children. And even carry out genetic modification of the "material" in order to get offspring, for example, with a higher IQ or height.
As indicated in the article by American journalists, a kind of closed club for the rich has formed in the country, whose participants are discussing the prospects of "eugenics" and are probably already using the possibilities of science to improve offspring. The publication names Brian Armstrong, a well-known crypto billionaire and head of Coinbase, as well as Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, as the main investors in this area.
Among the clients of geneticists, the famous Elon Musk also "lit up", the American media reported. And recently, his eldest child, 20-year-old Vivian Jenna Wilson, who made the so—called gender transition (the LGBT movement is recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation), said in one of the social networks that she was "designated" as a man at birth - this is "a product that was bought and paid for." According to media reports, her father used IVF to give birth to eight of his 14 children, and all of them were supposed to be boys. However, according to the businessman's father, there were only four of them.
— With the help of IVF, you can choose the sex of the child — a boy or a girl. It's very interesting because it's usually impossible. Elon chose this path, and many other people with financial means also follow it. In fact, both boys and girls were born from IVF procedures. It's just a myth that he chose only boys," Errol Musk told Izvestia.
The very possibility of creating GMO children resembles the world of the future from dystopias. Along with the ethical contradictions, these technologies also have undoubted benefits, scientists believe. For example, they can save people from infertility or hereditary diseases. Izvestia correspondents managed to talk with representatives of the companies mentioned in the article and learn first-hand about their activities.
According to Katie Tai, founder of the Manhattan Project startup, the technology she is developing will allow parents not to pass on hereditary diseases to their children. This area is carefully regulated by the authorities, and the developers are in contact with them.
— First of all, we need to communicate more with regulators and society in order to explain the possibilities of technology and form the correct framework for its use in medicine. We are currently at an early stage, creating datasets and conducting research to show regulators how safe and effective new gene editing methods can be to eliminate diseases at the embryo stage. When the regulatory framework changes, the technology may become available in those countries where it is approved," said Cathy Tai.
According to the entrepreneur, choosing the embryos with the best properties and rejecting unwanted ones seems wrong to her. It is more humane to "save" them with the help of gene editing. The clinical use of such technologies is currently prohibited in the United States, but laboratory tests are possible.
— In the United States, there are exceptions for research groups that are approved and work with human embryos or embryonic stem cells in compliance with strict rules. Therefore, scientific research is possible. But there is no clinical application yet," she said.
The Manhattan Project's research is aimed at eliminating diseases, but not at "improving" the breed, since the company does not increase intelligence, change appearance or other non-functional characteristics, Katie Tai emphasized in a conversation with Izvestia journalists.
Gene therapy
Interestingly, according to various media reports, the entrepreneur was married to the famous Chinese scientist, the pioneer of human gene editing, He Jiankui. He is the author of the first successful experiment to modify twins who, as a result of his intervention, were born resistant to HIV infection.
Katie Tai declined to comment on their relationship, and the geneticist himself told Izvestia that he had received a lucrative offer from a Canadian woman (the head of the Manhattan Project also holds Canadian citizenship) to develop a commercial technology for obtaining children with the right properties. And there is a lot of indirect evidence that it could have been Katie Tai.
— Recently, a beautiful rich woman came to Beijing. She invited me to dinner at an expensive restaurant and offered me several million dollars to open a business in the United States — services for super-rich families: creating children with "high IQ", improved appearance or "improved" genetics. I refused. That's not what I want to do. My goal is to help people get rid of diseases. I am categorically against increasing IQ through gene editing," He Jiankui told Izvestia reporters.
Choosing embryos for the sake of a high IQ is scientifically incorrect and morally unacceptable. A person's success depends not on IQ, but on family, love, and community support. Companies, especially those funded from Silicon Valley and operating partly in the Middle East, are already secretly conducting experiments to create children with high IQs, which is unacceptable, the scientist stressed.
According to him, gene therapy currently costs about $1-2 million per person in the United States, which is absurdly expensive. But if you do editing at the embryo level, the procedure costs only a few thousand, and it is available to most families. Therefore, in a few years, governments will begin to make it part of national programs and offer it free of charge so that families can get rid of hereditary diseases, he added.
Setting up IQ
However, according to Justin Schlied, head of the Herasight laboratory, their technology already makes it possible to select embryos that are not only free of hereditary diseases, but also potentially have higher IQ and height. We are talking about IVF materials that are tested for various genetic risks.
"After analyzing for dangerous mutations, we check the rest of the embryos for polygenic risk, including diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and even factors such as height and IQ," the scientist said.
According to him, experts have no influence on the decision of future parents, which embryo to choose. For example, some families may worry about cardiovascular diseases and prefer an embryo with their lowest risk. Others are to look for a gene variant with certain traits. And if there are people in the family who are too tall, then the parents choose an embryo with average height. At the same time, "unsuccessful attempts" with diseases are often simply thrown away.
In addition to studying the properties and selection of embryos, gene editing can be used to combat a large number of diseases. However, working in this field is associated with serious ethical risks, the expert believes.
— From a scientific point of view, we are capable of incredible things today, but it is important to take into account: there will be couples who will not be able to get enough embryos, and then technologies such as gene editing can help them give birth to healthy children. But in the long term, we need to carefully study all aspects of these methods," said Justin Schlied.
In the future, it will be easier to obtain desired characteristics, such as height or IQ, through embryo selection than through direct gene editing, the scientist emphasized. There are already genetic markers indicating a predisposition to higher or lower intelligence. However, attempts to "improve" genes or select more perfect traits are much more difficult and involve many scientific and technological challenges, he added.
Business or ethics
Herasight charges $50,000 for testing and analyzing up to 100 embryos over five years. Another company offers an analysis of a single embryo for $2,500 and generates "risk assessments" for a number of diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Another competitor has a polygenic screening of up to 20 embryos that costs $9,999.
According to The Wall Street Journal, the most radical experiments are being conducted by the startup Preventive. Modern gene editing technologies allow scientists to cut, modify, and insert DNA fragments. However, interference with sperm, eggs, or embryos is prohibited in the United States, so the company is looking for opportunities to conduct experiments abroad.
According to the publication, the company's investor, Brian Armstrong, suggested that scientists work in secret and present a healthy genetically modified child to the world before the scientific community could criticize. The billionaire claims that gene editing technologies can create children who are less susceptible to cardiovascular diseases, with lower cholesterol levels and stronger bones, which, in his opinion, can reduce the risk of osteoporosis. On its website, Preventive announced that it has attracted $30 million in investments for research in the field of embryo editing.
Embryo selection in IVF to exclude hereditary diseases is already a reality today, but their editing is possible only for scientific purposes. At the same time, there is no coordinated international control in this area. Such modifications are not made, as there is no guarantee that errors will not appear and harm will not be caused as a result, Mikhail Bolkov, an immunologist and author of the Bioethics and Biotech Telegram channel, explained to Izvestia.
— Polygenic risk assessment has been around for a long time and is beneficial. If a person has gone for IVF, then he probably has health problems. We can confidently determine some body parameters, such as eye color, but speculating with them is dangerous. It is still not known which genes correlate with IQ. About 4 thousand genome regions associated with this indicator are known. But intelligence is only 50% dependent on hereditary causes, so it is not yet possible to say that a genetically modified child will be smarter," he said.
According to Antonina Yesakova, an assistant at the Department of Medical Genetics at the Russian University of Medicine, today in the Russian Federation, when planning pregnancy under the IVF program, it is possible to check embryos for chromosomal abnormalities. This reduces the risk of having a child with diseases such as Down syndrome, and significantly increases the likelihood of a healthy baby being born.
— There are possibilities for editing a future human at the embryo stage. But before such technologies can appear in clinical practice, they must undergo convincing and comprehensive testing. We need to understand for sure that they do not cause harm and will be used only in strictly defined clinical situations — when we do not have simpler, studied and controlled methods to reduce the risk of the disease," the specialist explained.
As a source in the MSU Bioethics commission noted in a conversation with Izvestia, the ethical sphere has never had clear boundaries. The key question remains whether it is acceptable to provide future parents with detailed information about the characteristics of the embryo. For such an assessment, it is necessary to determine whose rights are more important in this case — the parents or the future fetus. If you do provide this information to mothers and fathers, the state will not be able to influence their future decisions.
As for the United States, according to a McKinsey study, the IVF market in the country will grow from about $3.5 billion in 2023 to more than $5 billion in 2028. According to experts, in a few years the cost of editing embryo genes may decrease to $ 2 thousand, which will make such procedures routine from a financial point of view.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
