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This 25-Year-Old Biotech Founder Says His Startup Can ‘Optimize’ Embryos for Intelligence
- On June 10, 2025, U.S.-based startup Nucleus Genomics launched Nucleus Embryo, a subscription service screening up to 20 embryos per IVF cycle for health, intelligence, and physical traits.
- The launch follows longstanding ethical concerns from the Catholic Church, which in its 2008 document Dignitatis Personae condemned embryo screening and genetic enhancement as violations of human dignity and potential eugenics.
- Nucleus Embryo, a biotech startup founded by a 25-year-old entrepreneur and supported by investor Peter Thiel, offers a service priced at $6,000 per cycle that enables parents to choose embryos based on predicted traits such as intelligence, physical appearance, and susceptibility to diseases.
- Critics warn the service risks commodifying children and enables eugenic practices, with ethicists like Father Pacholczyk calling it a ‘command and control’ mentality that pressures couples toward physical perfection.
- The service’s rollout intensifies ethical debates on embryo selection’s social impact, possible discrimination, and the challenges of predicting complex traits like intelligence amidst scientific uncertainty.
12 Articles
12 Articles
Startup Wants to Give Parents the Power to Create Genetically Superior Babies
A 25-year-old founder has rolled out what might be the most ethically murky subscription service ever devised: a genetic ranking app for embryos. For $6,000, Nucleus Genomics will let you swipe right on the embryos that will turn into your future kids, sorted by their projected intelligence, appearance, and health. The startup, founded by Kian Sadeghi and backed by Peter Thiel, who is a big fan of eugenics despite or perhaps because of its enorm…
In the United States, parents can influence the characteristics of their future child at private clinics. This is not possible in Finland, says genetic researcher Kirmo Wartiovaara.
What C. S. Lewis Can Tell Us About New IVF Eugenics Technology - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
The U.S. biotech company Nucleus Genomics has announced new in vitro fertilization (IVF) software that allows couples to choose which of up to 20 embryos to implant into the woman’s uterus by looking at embryos’ complete genetic profiles. The product, called Nucleus Embryo, advertises itself as “the first genetic optimization software” that provides clients a “complete genetic profile of each of their embryos.” According to the press release, th…
New U.S. Embryo Screening Firm Raises Specter of ‘Designer Babies’
Corona Borealis The Catholic Church has long condemned the IVF process and the production of these embryos, but those warnings have gone unheeded, and there are now an estimated 1 million frozen embryos in the U.S. alone. Embryos that meet parental desires will be eligible for implanting, and undesirable ones will be discarded.
catholicworldreport.com
Catholic News AgencyNew U.S. embryo screening firm raises specter of ‘designer babies’
null / Credit: Tati9/Shutterstock CNA Staff, Jun 10, 2025 / 15:51 pm (CNA). A U.S.-based biotech company has announced the launch of Nucleus Embryo, a company that screens human embryos for desired genetic profiles, a practice the Catholic Church teaches violates human dignity and contributes to a eugenic mentality. People undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) will be able to screen up to 20 embryos for over 900 conditions and traits, includi…
Genetics Startup Advertises App-Based Eugenics Service for Parents to Select "Smartest" Embryos
A Gen Z entrepreneur and apparent eugenics enthusiast has launched an app that allows prospective parents to rank which embryos they want the most. First reported by the Wall Street Journal, this new, subscription-based platform hails from Nucleus Genomics, a startup founded by 25-year-old Kian Sadeghi who likens potential backlash against his "genetic optimization" service to the fears surrounding in-vitro fertilization (IVF) just a few decades…
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