Of the respondents, 28 percent said they were more likely than not to use gene editing to make their babies smarter, and 38 percent said theyâd use polygenic screening. The researchers also noted what they called a bandwagon effect, where people who were told something along the lines of âeveryone else is doing itâ were more likely to say theyâd do it too. This is logical; our comfort with decisions is buoyed by a sense that others in our shoes would choose similarly.
Itâs important to note, though, that the survey made it clear that genetically enhancing embryos didnât come with a guaranteed result of a smarter kid. âIn this study, we stipulated a realistic effectâthat each service would increase the odds of having a child who attends a top-100 college by 2 percentage points, from 3 percent to 5 percent oddsâand lots of people are still interested,â said Michelle N. Meyer, chair of the Department of Bioethics and Decision Sciences at Geisinger and first author of the article.
The numbersâ28 and 38 percentâdonât seem high. Thatâs a little below and a little above one-third of total respondents who would use the technologies. But imagine walking around in a world where one out of every three people had had their genes tweaked before birth. Unsettling, no? The researchers said their results point to substantial and growing interest in genetic technologies for offspring enhancement, and that now is the time to get a national conversation going around regulations.
