“You pay 46,000 euros and we analyze the genome of 100 embryos so you can select the most intelligent one.” It is not part of the script of the film Gattaca, but the message that the company Heliospect Genomics is offering privately to its clients, according to an investigation by the British activist group hope not hatewhich has obtained numerous recordings through an undercover investigator.
The American company, part of a project called PolygenX that plans to go public, takes advantage of the information from the UK Biobank data bank, in the United Kingdom, to analyze and compare the genes of the embryos and promise its clientele the possibility of choosing the most intelligent during the process, as the newspaper has been able to corroborate on its own Guardian.
Under the pretext of offering a polygenic risk score (PRS), which studies the individual effect of different genetic variants such as height or propensity for diabetes, the platform markets a service that is illegal in many countries, such as the United Kingdom and Spain. , but it can be carried out in fertility clinics in the United States. The formal loophole that Heliospect takes advantage of is that it does not offer assisted reproduction services, but rather advice based on the analysis of genetic data to predict the specific traits of your individual embryos.
“There are babies on the way”
During the presentation to the infiltrated investigator of hope not hatemembers of the company recommended formulas to bypass the regulation and promised an average increase, thanks to this system, of more than six IQ points, in addition to offering the selection of other traits such as height, which could be prioritized according to their preferences. personal.
This practice is already underway and the company has helped select embryos for five couples. “There are babies on the way,” says co-founder Michael Christensen
This selection of traits not directly related to the health of the fetus is linked to eugenics, a current of thought that emerged in the 19th century that defends intervention through different means to improve human hereditary traits and that led to the horrors of Nazism. , in addition to campaigns of persecution and sterilization against the most vulnerable social groups in many countries.
According to British media, this practice is already underway and the company has analyzed and helped select embryos for five couples, which were subsequently implanted through a fertilization program. In the words of the company’s co-founder, Dane Michael Christensen, “there are babies on the way.”
Connections with the extreme right
The platform hope not hate denounces the connection of this biotechnology company and its creators with well-known defenders of eugenics and its links with far-right activism, although they reject the accusations. Among the company’s directors is Jonathan Anomaly, a defender of the so-called “liberal eugenics”, a formula that defends the genetic selection and improvement of individuals through biotechnological tools, although it is intended to disassociate itself from the negative charge of this term in the past. .
Jonathan Anomaly brags about having gotten a meeting with Elon Musk, who—according to him—considers the project “is great.”
Anomaly brags about getting a meeting with Elon Muskwho—according to him—considers that the project “is great,” and has the support of other Silicon Valley millionaires. Among the implicitly recognized clients is the pronatalist couple of Simone and Malcolm Collinswho publicly defend openly racist maxims, such as the need to “promote higher birth rates among economically and intellectually productive populations” thanks to polygenic screening and embryo selection. “Only cultures with a strong external motivation to have children are well above the repopulation rate right now; all the others will enter the trash heap of history,” they defend.
“Ethically unacceptable”
Although the company claims not to be evading UK legislation on embryo testing, as UK Biobank maintains that its activity appears to be “fully compatible” with its access conditions, the specialists consulted by Guardian and elDiario.es have serious doubts about the legality of this practice.
For Lluis Montoliu, geneticist at the National Center for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC), these practices are ethically unacceptable and we should not promote them, since they are neither justified nor have scientific validity. To begin with, he assures, we do not know in detail the genes that contribute to psychic characteristics such as empathy, affability or intelligence, despite the fact that there have been successive attempts. “But, even if we knew those genes that determine greater intelligence, it would not be ethically justified to promote them to the detriment of others, with the aim of supposedly more intelligent children being born,” he warns. “Science has to help normalize our differences in health and well-being, it should not contribute to widening those differences.”
These practices are ethically unacceptable and we should not promote them, since they are neither justified nor have scientific validity.
Lluis Montoliu
— Geneticist at the National Center for Biotechnology (CNB-CSIC)
“They play with parents’ expectations, they present the polygenic risk calculation as if it had the same genetic certainty as the genetic diagnosis of minority diseases, which are Mendelian and depend on a single gene,” he says. Gemma Marfanyprofessor of Genetics at the University of Barcelona (UB). In his opinion, this market “covertly favors eugenics” and its acceptance would increase genetic inequality and discrimination.
“Intelligence is a polygenic risk subtrait that should not be used under any circumstances,” agrees Pablo Lapunzina, Scientific Director of the Networked Biomedical Research Center for Rare Diseases (CIBERER). “On the other hand, having a high IQ does not guarantee that you are more intelligent, even if the six points they promise are actually insignificant.”
Many data support that this should not be done, but there are many people who believe that they have the right to do it.
Pablo Lapunzina
— Scientific Director of the Network Biomedical Research Center for Rare Diseases (CIBERER)
The priority of this type of genetic screening interventions, Lapunzina emphasizes, must be to guarantee that the fetus is healthy and not use health resources to order “children on demand.” “All this is nonsense, no matter how you look at it, and it’s going to cause a lot of trouble,” he summarizes. “History and many data support those of us who defend that this should not be done; The problem is that there are a lot of people who believe they have the right to do it.”
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