Baby gene editing? Many Americans would do it to get into top colleges

A survey published in the journal Science found that most Americans are not morally opposed to prenatal genetic testing and editing to optimize a child’s chances of attending a top 100 university.

The paper focuses on public opinions of PGT-P technology, which could one day allow for the testing of IVF embryos—those fertilized outside the human body—for polygenic traits, which include difficult-to-define qualities like personality and intelligence. Parents could test and select embryos based on their potential aptitudes. The technology is already being offered at genetic testing companies like Genomic Prediction, though as of now the service is offered specifically for preventing risk of inherited disease.

But that could soon change. More than half of the respondents answered that selecting an IVF embryo based on its college prospects was either “morally acceptable” or “not a moral issue,” and over 40% of those surveyed said they would use the service if provided. Only 17% of respondents thought that using genetic testing to choose a more college-ready fetus was morally wrong.

Perhaps even more surprising, a third of the respondents said they would be willing to use gene-editing services on their child to increase their college aptitude. Less than a third said they considered doing so morally wrong.

The authors of the study press that lawmakers need to begin to take the public desire to use these technologies more seriously, and that more research needs to be done on the impact that access to genetic testing and editing for nonmedical traits could have on societal inequality.