Brittany Luce

This episode of It's Been a Minute was produced by Corey Antonio Rose. This episode was edited by Nina Potok. Our supervising producer is Barton Girdwood. Our executive producer is Veralyn Williams. Our VP of programming is Yolanda Sanguini. All right, that's all for this episode of It's Been a Minute from NPR. I'm Brittany Luce. Talk soon.

Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

Hello, hello. I'm Brittany Luce, and you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

Exactly. Have you seen the movie Gattaca? The 1997 sleeper hit movie shows a society where every person is born through genetic selection for the best possible genes. And in the film, Ethan Hawke plays a guy who was conceived the traditional way, who steals someone else's identity to achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut because his own genes were deemed inferior.

Exactly. Have you seen the movie Gattaca? The 1997 sleeper hit movie shows a society where every person is born through genetic selection for the best possible genes. And in the film, Ethan Hawke plays a guy who was conceived the traditional way, who steals someone else's identity to achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut because his own genes were deemed inferior.

Exactly. Have you seen the movie Gattaca? The 1997 sleeper hit movie shows a society where every person is born through genetic selection for the best possible genes. And in the film, Ethan Hawke plays a guy who was conceived the traditional way, who steals someone else's identity to achieve his dream of becoming an astronaut because his own genes were deemed inferior.

The reason I'm bringing up this nearly 30-year-old movie is because of this newly available technology called polygenic embryo screening. I've been hearing some comparisons of this technology to Gattaca.

The reason I'm bringing up this nearly 30-year-old movie is because of this newly available technology called polygenic embryo screening. I've been hearing some comparisons of this technology to Gattaca.

The reason I'm bringing up this nearly 30-year-old movie is because of this newly available technology called polygenic embryo screening. I've been hearing some comparisons of this technology to Gattaca.

That's Vardit Ravitsky, senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and president of the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics research center. The genetic testing we typically already use on embryos came out just a few years before Gattaca. And it usually looks for specific conditions that have really clear single gene causes, like Tay-Sachs disease, which is very painful and deadly.

That's Vardit Ravitsky, senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and president of the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics research center. The genetic testing we typically already use on embryos came out just a few years before Gattaca. And it usually looks for specific conditions that have really clear single gene causes, like Tay-Sachs disease, which is very painful and deadly.

That's Vardit Ravitsky, senior lecturer at Harvard Medical School and president of the Hastings Center, a nonpartisan bioethics research center. The genetic testing we typically already use on embryos came out just a few years before Gattaca. And it usually looks for specific conditions that have really clear single gene causes, like Tay-Sachs disease, which is very painful and deadly.

But polygenic screening, it's new and it's different. It looks at conditions that have a lot of different genetic variables, hence the name polygenic.

But polygenic screening, it's new and it's different. It looks at conditions that have a lot of different genetic variables, hence the name polygenic.

But polygenic screening, it's new and it's different. It looks at conditions that have a lot of different genetic variables, hence the name polygenic.

Companies like Orchid and Heliospect offered a screen for conditions that can include cancer, obesity, bipolar disorder, celiac disease, and autism. The current head of the Health and Human Services Department, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., stated, "...by September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we'll be able to eliminate those exposures."

Companies like Orchid and Heliospect offered a screen for conditions that can include cancer, obesity, bipolar disorder, celiac disease, and autism. The current head of the Health and Human Services Department, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., stated, "...by September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we'll be able to eliminate those exposures."

Companies like Orchid and Heliospect offered a screen for conditions that can include cancer, obesity, bipolar disorder, celiac disease, and autism. The current head of the Health and Human Services Department, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., stated, "...by September we will know what has caused the autism epidemic and we'll be able to eliminate those exposures."

So this kind of research feels top of mind right now. But the causes for these conditions are not always clear. So they give each embryo risk scores based on their calculation of probability that a kid might develop these conditions. Now, we're a long way from becoming like the society in Gattaca. These tests are expensive and only available through IVF.