Guardian essay on Nucleus Genomics raises alarm over commercial eugenics in embryo screening
Jan Grue examines how genetic selection services promising "best babies" echo eugenic ideals through consumer optimization.
What to know
- Nucleus Genomics is marketing embryo screening that selects for traits beyond disease—including eye color, height, intelligence, and other characteristics—marketed as consumer optimization.
- Jan Grue argues this represents a return to eugenic thinking dressed in commercial language, drawing from personal experience living with a genetic disability.
- The service frames genetic perfection as continuous with existing wellness culture—optimization of body and mind through quantification and measurement.
- Critics counter that neo-eugenic ideals of total independence contradict human nature as a fundamentally social species.
Commercial embryo selection extending beyond disease prevention into cosmetic traits represents modern eugenics with troubling social implications.
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“Would you pay to have the 'best baby'? Liberal eugenics and the troubling quest for human perfection”
picardonhealth.bsky.social · Bluesky ↗
Neo-eugenic ideals of independence and perfection are philosophically at odds with human interdependence and social nature.
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“Neo-eugenics offers a vision of total independence, of a disconnect from society. Measured against such an ideal, all of us fall short.”
gubi · Mastodon ↗
“Nucleus promised prospective parents that they could now have their "best baby". By way of posters claiming that "height is 80% genetic" and "intelligence is 50%", potential customers were led to a website detailing an expensive, comprehensive IVF procedure.”
Jan Grue, Essay author · The Guardian ↗ · Oct 26
Jan Grue Essay author, person with SMANucleus Genomics Commercial genetic screening company
How it unfolded 4 developments, newest first · click a bar or a number to jump articlesposts
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Bioethics community amplifies discussion on Bluesky
Health and bioethics account picardonhealth.bsky.social shares the article to its audience, framing it as an examination of how commercial eugenics is emerging.
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Early social media engagement endorses essay
Bluesky user citronica.bsky.social shares the piece, calling it a "Great article" by Grue.
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Guardian science desk amplifies essay on social media
The Guardian's science account shares the essay across Mastodon with tags including #Genetics, #Disability, #Biology, and #Science, broadening distribution of Grue's argument.
“Neo-eugenics offers a vision of total independence, of a disconnect from society. Measured against such an ideal, all of us fall short.”
— gubi, Mastodon user · source -
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Neo-eugenics offers a vision of total independence, of a disconnect from society. Measured against such an ideal, all of us fall short. However strong and self-reliant we may think ourselves to be, we are a social species, with few prospects of surviving, let alone thriving, on our own. https://www. theguardian.com/news/ng-intera…
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Guardian publishes essay on commercial eugenics and embryo screening
Jan Grue, who has lived with spinal muscular atrophy since childhood, publishes an essay in the Guardian examining Nucleus Genomics' advertising campaign in the New York City subway system. The company promises prospective parents they can have their "best baby" through IVF embryo screening that evaluates not only genetic disorders but also cosmetic and behavioral traits like eye color, height, strength, and intelligence.
“For decades the idea of eugenics has been taboo. Now it is returning in a new commercial guise…”
— Jan Grue -
1 outlet Would you pay to have the ‘best baby’? Liberal eugenics and the troubling quest for human perfection
first by Guardian Science, 12d ago
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