The fascination with what some call “genetic optimization” reflects deeper Silicon Valley beliefs about merit and success. “I think they have a perception that they are smart and they are accomplished, and they deserve to be where they are because they have ‘good genes,’” said Sasha Gusev, a statistical geneticist at Harvard Medical School. “Now they have a tool where they think that they can do the same thing in their kids as well, right?” 

On a recent visit to the Interesting Times podcast, Noor Siddiqui, head of the IVF screening company Orchid, told Ross Douthat that baby-making needs to change. Not only will the genetic screening of embryos be available, she predicted; it will be the new normal of procreation. 

The vast majority of parents in the future are not going to want to roll the dice with their child’s health. They’re going to see it as taking the maximum amount of care, the maximum amount of love. In the same way that they plan their nursery, plan their home, plan their preschool. … I think it then becomes about stewardship. It becomes about how do I make a responsible choice for my family. 

Siddiqui is probably correct. When children are seen as accessories to adult life, eugenics makes the most sense. Why wouldn’t we take every step possible to optimize the health of the child we take home, even if that involves the creation and discarding of other tiny humans in the process? And why wouldn’t we use the best available technology to do so? 

IVF is pitched as a therapeutic technology, enabling those unable to have kids to become parents. Increasingly, it is also sold by appealing to certain lifestyle choices. Those who wish to postpone pregnancy or hand off the task to willing incubators can still have the children they want.  

To be clear, the IVF process has always separated procreation from sex, and it has always involved the screening and selection of embryos. Siddiqui is simply promising more of the same. “Sex is for pleasure,” she has said on several occasions; “IVF is for having children.” There is a market, she believes, in more thorough testing and better screening. She’s probably right.  

Many people have noted that the 1997 movie Gattaca has proven to be eerily prophetic.

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