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The gene-ie is out of the bottle.
A fertility startup that offers embryo screening to predict a baby’s height and intelligence has sparked controversy with a series of provocative new ads.
Nucleus Genomics blanketed Big Apple subway stations with billboards this week as part of their “Have Your Best Baby” campaign, encouraging prospective parents to “build generational health.”
The company also posted fliers outside the American Eagle flagship in SoHo, reading “These babies have great genes” — a reference to that retailer’s Sydney Sweeney commercial that caused outrage this past summer.
Nucleus offers customers access to “genetic optimization software” allowing them to “analyze, compare, and select their embryos based on 2000+ genetic predictions.”
The technology not only screens for potential health conditions, but also for physical traits, such as eye and hair color, causing critics to claim the company is “using IVF to create designer babies.”
“So… eugenics is profitable now?” one commuter snarked in a now-viral post on X.
That post prompted heated debate about Nucleus, with others also describing the technology as “terrifyingly dystopian.”
However, defenders hit back, claiming the company was simply offering more options to parents.
“Wouldn’t you want your child to have the best possible outcome?” one asked. “You’re going through the IVF process anyway, why would you just pick a random embryo instead of the best possible one out of your lot? How is this controversial lol.”
“Calling this ‘eugenics’ is just intellectually lazy,” a second stated. “Genetic screening does not equal eugenics – it’s risk reduction. It’s the same logic as preventing a hereditary disorder, except now we can quantify mutation load, disease probability, and chromosomal stability instead of guessing. And the crazy part? We’re entering an era where parents can actually use real genomic data to give their child the healthiest possible start their own biology allows.”
Despite the controversy, the campaign has attracted serious interest from aspiring moms and dads.
The company has seen a staggering 1,700% increase in sales since the ads began going up on Nov. 14.
“Every family deserves to know these tools exist,” the company’s CEO Kian Sadeghi said of the new attention-grabbing ads. “They [the tools] are safe, and they can help you make more thoughtful decisions about your future child.”
“Not every family will want to use them, and that’s okay,” he added. “But every family deserves to know.”
