It’s Summer of 2025. I’m standing in a grass covered field on the longest day of the year. A friend of mine walks towards me, holding his newborn son.

“Hey, I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but you were pretty instrumental in this kid existing. We read your blog post on polygenic embryo screening back in 2023 and decided to go through IVF to have him as a result.”

He hesitates for a moment, then asks “Do you want to hold him?” I nod.

As I cradle this child in my arms, I look down at his face. It feels surreal to think I played a part in him being here. It's the first time I've met one of these children that I've worked so hard to bring into existence.

My mind wanders back to a summer five years before when I was stuck at home during COVID, working my boring tech job selling chip design software for a large company. I remember the feeling of awe I had upon learning that it was possible to read an embryo’s genome and estimate its risk of conditions like diabetes, then choose to implant an embryo with a lower risk.

I remember the struggle of trying to break into this new field of reproductive genetics, one I knew nothing about. I remember the endless hours reading research papers, doing computational modeling, the meetings, the flights, and the endless debates about the ethics of trying to bring children like this into the world.

As I stand there in the shade of a large oak tree, the wind gently blowing past us, it all feels oddly distant. I watch his tiny little fists clench and unclench as his eyes drift back and forth gazing at the branches above us.

“You have no idea how loved you are little man”, I think to myself. “Or how many people that you will never meet worked to make it possible for you to be here.”

I hope some day he will understand. He’s among the first of a generation of kids that will have a chance to grow up a little healthier, a little smarter, and hopefully a little happier than the children that came before him. Maybe someday most children will be like him.

In just the last two years, I’ve watched polygenic embryo screening, the technology used to make this possible, explode in popularity among my social circles. A good third of my friends are now doing IVF just to get access. Almost every month there's a record number of new parents signing up.

Everyone has a different reason for wanting it. Some have a family history of some disease and they r...

bgulko

bgulko