Polygenic Embryo Screening: Is it Ethical?

 A recent article discusses a medical and ethical debate in the UK. With the evolution of advanced technology and genetic techniques, a couple's embryos can be predicted for their “quality”- assessing traits like IQ score, height, health, etc. This technique of scoring embryos based on DNA is prohibited in UK fertility clinics- due to both scientific and ethical concerns. However, couples have found legal loopholes that allow them to send samples of their embryos to sites in the US, where polygenic screening is legal. UK clinics are left facing both “legal and ethical confusion” (Delvin 2025). Another article, published in the National Library of Medicine, expresses concern about the recent use of polygenic embryo screening in private companies. The article explains that this technology is and should be used to determine if an embryo can develop severe diseases such as Tay-Sachs and cystic fibrosis. With developing technology, it has also become possible to test embryos for psychiatric disorders and an array of polygenic traits. Based on these predictions, a parent may select the embryos they wish to implant. However, this article urges society that “polygenic embryo screening raises many ethical, legal, and social issues that can potentially lead to harm and have not yet been studied or addressed” (Lencz, 2023).

The idea of Polygenic Embryo screening is both fascinating and alarming. Advancements in technology have allowed science to expand and do what was once deemed impossible. This technology is powerful and can be used to detect serious diseases that may form in a fetus, making it vital to the field of genetics and IVF. However, there are serious ethical concerns behind the way private companies choose to use these advancements. Is it ethically correct for couples to choose which embryo to implant based on the embryo's scores? I struggle with this idea, as it goes against the randomness of life.

Your Genetic Risk of Mental Health Disorders Can Determine Where You Live

There are different factors that determine a place where someone lives. Some of those factors include price, location, weather conditions, and even the genetic risk of mental health disorders. A study conducted by a research team from King’s College London were able to identify that there are genes that cause people to choose their living choice based off them. They suggested that there is a correlation between a person’s genes and their environment. The experiment was based on a polygenic risk score (PRS) conducted on about 300,000 UK citizens ages ranging from 37 to 73. The PRS allowed the team to examine the gene liability of every individual involved. From all those studied, there was a higher risk of bipolar disorder, anorexia, and autism and a lower risk for ADHD in people who moved from rural to urban locations. Those risk in being diagnosed with schizophrenia and ADHD are likely to live in cities. They were able to concluded that depending on one’s likelihood to develop a mental disorder can determine the place they live. 

https://medicalxpress.com/pdf554541231.pdf

https://www.genome.gov/Health/Genomics-and-Medicine/Polygenic-risk-scores

 

Variability with polygenic risk scores

 `                                    

    With increased popularity in companies such as 23andme and the ability to assess a person's DNA for a "polygenic risk scores", preventative health decisions are becoming more and more popular. The polygenic risk score is basically an overall assessment of an individuals DNA using a small piece of DNA from saliva and generate an estimation based on large-scale genomic studies. While a large majority of the consumers can be accurately assessed for risk, other users may find themselves in the wrong category. This has lead to a study to be conducted, in which coronary heart disease, atrial fibrillation, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, glaucoma, and breast cancer, were used in order to calculate risk scores. The data had shown that regardless of what control is used for the risk factor, due to the scale of population-level genetics, there is always introduced variability. In order to reduce this randomness the researchers had to run the tool multiple times to eliminate the random elements and create an average to assist in a computational process that strives for accuracy. 
    Based on the information provided by the article, it has created a sense of yes and no debate with regards to these polygenic tests. Essentially the information is saying that the more they sequence the snippet of DNA the more the results are accurate. The question is how many times are these companies actually doing these sequences as well as how radical are these overall results? Of course this research is evidentially useful to those who are prone to these risks, but if the inaccuracies are substantial in certain groups is the information really that useful on a global scale? It is all interesting regardless, just more curious in terms of information that is actually gathered by these tests versus what is generally assumed by the test itself based on these population level pools.

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-highlights-strategies-boosting-accuracy-personal.html

https://genomemedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13073-020-00801-x