A US startup, Heliospect Genomics, is offering wealthy couples the ability to screen embryos for IQ using controversial genetic selection techniques, raising significant ethical concerns. Undercover footage obtained by the campaign group Hope Not Hate reveals the company marketing its services for up to $50,000 (£38,000) to test 100 embryos, claiming it can help parents select future children based on genetic predictions of intelligence, with potential IQ gains of over six points.
The company has worked with more than a dozen couples undergoing IVF, according to the recordings. An employee outlined how couples could rank embryos based on “IQ and the other naughty traits that everybody wants”, including sex, height, risk of obesity and mental illness. Heliospect uses polygenic scoring, analysing genetic data from parents to predict embryo traits, but does not provide IVF itself.
Experts have condemned the practice as an ethical minefield. Dagan Wells, a professor of reproductive genetics at the University of Oxford, questioned whether this is “a test too far”, noting the public has not fully engaged in the debate. Katie Hasson of the Center for Genetics and Society warned it normalises “superior” and “inferior” genetics, reinforcing inequality as biological rather than social.
Heliospect’s CEO, Michael Christensen, a former financial trader, boasted of a future where lab-grown eggs allow creation of thousands of embryos for elite selection. He speculated the service could eventually include personality traits like the “dark triad” (machiavellianism, narcissism, psychopathy). The company says its tools were built using data from UK Biobank, a taxpayer-funded resource, which only shares data for projects in the public interest.
Selecting embryos for high IQ is illegal in the UK but legal in the US, though not yet commercially available. Heliospect, incorporated in the US, claims to operate within all laws and regulations. It is currently in “stealth mode” before a planned public launch, with pricing for fewer embryos around $4,000.
