This Woman Will Decide Which Babies Are Born

Right now, Orchid calculates each embryos likelihood of one day suffering from any number of the more than 1,200 diseases and conditions about which we currently have (anywhere from rock-solid to, ya know, vague and extrapolative) genetic information..

Because, as she said herself, this is a science fiction story too . Jason Kehe: Before we get to your embryos, I just learned that you have a new podcastnot just about Orchid but about all kinds of crazy science and future-y stuff..

Basically he just shows you how youve spent 90 percent of the hours youre ever going to spend with your parents by the time youre 18and how, yeah, the moments that we have with each other are actually way more scarce and nonrenewable..

But whenever I think about this story, I thinkif Orchid technology had existed back then, and if the batch of embryos that contained your future mom had been screened, and if her parentsyour grandparentshad not wanted their child to grow up with retinitis pigmentosa, and if they had therefore picked a different embryo and had a different child, thenyouthe discarded embryos future daughterwould not exist..

That was, what, over a decade ago, and a lot of prospective parents still rely on the same genetic testing we used back then.. I would consider it negligent to use the old technology..

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