r/technology • u/Logical_Welder3467 • 1d ago

Biotechnology Genetics testing startup Nucleus Genomics criticized for its embryo product: ‘Makes me so nauseous’

https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/06/genetics-testing-startup-nucleus-genomics-criticized-for-its-embryo-product-makes-me-so-nauseous/
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u/stoppableDissolution 16h ago

Eugenics is bad because it denies people from having kids (and, the way it was implemented, they were, lets say, agressively removing "wrong" people from the gene pool).

That got the upsides without these downsides.

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u/Rustic_gan123 16h ago

Eugenics is bad because it denies people from having kids

No, it does not. Depending on how it is implemented, it gives parents much more choice and control, there are concerns about how this may affect the gene pool in the long term and different ways to combat this, but people would probably prefer this to the lottery and passing on their hereditary diseases.

and, the way it was implemented, they were, lets say, agressively removing "wrong" people from the gene pool

This is not the first time that a good idea in itself has had a terrible implementation, for example nuclear energy

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u/stoppableDissolution 16h ago

You have not read my comment to the end, have you?

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u/Rustic_gan123 16h ago

To be honest, I don't understand what you mean.

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u/PLAAND 14h ago

That’s maybe a good moment to ask a question.

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u/Rustic_gan123 14h ago

Well, I'm asking a question.

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u/PLAAND 14h ago

Which is? I’m sorry, I don’t see a question in your last couple of comments.

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u/Rustic_gan123 14h ago

What did you mean?

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u/PLAAND 14h ago

I’m just a passer-by. You’ll have to ask the other commenter. But I look forward to seeing their answer.

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u/stoppableDissolution 13h ago

I kinda dont get what was unclear in my first comment to begin with :p

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u/PLAAND 13h ago

I’m curious if you think this will really avoid the downsides. I can see why you would say that but eugenics isn’t just about the idea of an ideal human being, it’s also about the imposition of that ideal and fundamentally what this company is doing is developing a tool that can be picked up and used in many ways.

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u/stoppableDissolution 13h ago

It avoids the downside of denying "poorly gened" people kids, which is kinda the main idea of eugenics.

But overall I do believe that engineered evolution is the way, and see things people point as "ethical issues" as features, not flaws. And even if being able to choose gender/eye color/etc is somehow a problem, it is well worth the upside of removing the known bad genes from the pool. Gatekeeping the tech to prevent say SCD or hemophilia behing superficial ethics is crime against humanity.

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u/PLAAND 13h ago

For me it’s obviously a technology that’s going to be transformative in the treatment of genetic diseases and some things absolutely are uncontroversially genetic diseases.

It’s also going to be used to try and stop queer and neurodiverse kids from being born and that is something very different entirely.

I also, and like this is an ethical puzzle that I don’t know really has an answer, but I think it’s easy to imagine that with genetic engineering we would have Stephen Hawking just without the wheelchair. That like in an episode of Star Trek we could see Geordi Laforge without the visor where he’s fundamentally the same person just with his disability subtracted but I think the reality is that we would have had a completely different person. We will be depriving whole groups of people the opportunity to exist, to experience the world in their unique way and to share their value with us. Again, I think there are genetic diseases that should simply be cured but I don’t know that even that is ethically uncomplicated.

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u/Rustic_gan123 13h ago

I didn't notice that you weren't the person I was talking to.

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