Using gene sequencing to screen out gifted babies? Today's cell: sorry, I can't!

Today, an interesting article appeared in cell magazine Using computer simulation, scientists found that using gene sequencing to screen high IQ, or high height babies, is basically impossible at the current level of technology In fact, the use of biotechnology to select future generations, since the advent of test tube baby technology, is the ethical problem people are worried about If we use biotechnology to screen the offspring without genetic diseases, we can still justify our behavior If it is to improve the intelligence of future generations, it will cause great controversy And the cell paper says there's nothing to argue about With the present technology, can't we do it at all! In the study, the scientists analyzed two polygenic traits: intelligence and height At the same time, this is also the so-called "eugenics" of the good shape Using known genomic data, they simulated it on a computer - assuming that a couple of in vitro babies decided to pick the most intelligent or tallest baby out of 10 fertilized eggs, could they? The simulation results show that although we can score each fertilized egg and select the fertilized egg with the highest score, the benefits they actually bring are very limited In terms of intelligence, the average IQ can only be increased by 2.5 points In terms of height, it only increased by 2.5cm What's more, it's not necessarily true - researchers use real-world evidence to test the relationship between these genetic variations and height, which is not always accurate The child with the highest score in a family may not grow higher than his brothers and sisters in the end ▲ illustration of this study (picture source: reference [1]) "There are a lot of uncertainties," said Shai Carmi, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, one of the study's co authors In addition to the known genetic variation, there are many variables that are not taken into account " Moreover, things can get more complicated if multiple traits are taken into account For example, a fertilized egg, which theoretically has a higher IQ, may be taller than the average If we want to consider the situation of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and other polygenic control, it will make the situation a mess In conclusion, the researchers believe that the idea of using gene sequencing to screen gifted babies is not reliable On the one hand, our current model does not always ensure that predictions are accurate On the other hand, it will bring many additional ethical disputes At present, it's better for people with this idea to die.