[giberson]

I though about this movie a lot going through IVF with my wife. Particularly when selecting the embryo to implant. For those that don’t know:

With IVF, the doctor harvests as many eggs from the woman as possible. Then after taking the make sample and cleaning, selecting the semen with best modality , fertilize each embryo. Then let the embryo grow for a couple of days then freeze the embryo until it’s ready to be implanted (likely during the woman’s next cycle). If you choose, and generally for a fee, you can have each embryo tested for chromosome mutations.

After the process your doctor will call you and let you know how many eggs were harvested and how many were fertilized. They can then give you a report card for the embryos that represent likelihood of live birth, chromosome evaluation, male/female etc.

You then make a selection of which embryo (s) to insert.

Obviously, given the expense of IVF it’s hard to imagine a scenario of not telling the doctor to pick the highest rated (male or female) embryo just for best chance of success.

Felt very reminiscent of gattaca. And that was just selecting the best that we produced. I can easily see myself saying yes to “The best embryo you have had a chromosome defect that will likely result in condition X, but we can fix the defect with a small gene modification, and give the child the best chance for a healthy life, should we modify the embryo?”

And then the slippery slope, “we can also improve the odds of higher intellect, being taller , thinner, etc”.

[KMag]

Did you find a very skewed sex ratio in your embryos?

My dad has a sister, but has only two sons. My brother has 3 sons and one daughter, all natural pregnancies. My wife and I have 1 son via IVF, and the other 4 embryos we had checked for chromosomal abnormalities happened to all be male.

I am aware that some IVF processes can inadvertently introduce a sex bias by exacerbating the tiny speed advantage the lighter Y chromosome gives sperm.

I'm curious (and will never know) how much of the skewed sex ratio of my embryos is due to randomness, how much is due to IVF processes, and how much might be due to some familial abnormality.

[giberson]

We did. The majority were female embryos. I mentioned report cards, we had 5 embryo's with grade A, 1 of which was male. We had a similar prevalence for female with lower grades as well, though there were 2 or 3 males each in the lower grades.

[whythre]

There are some harmful genetic mutations that associate with particular sex chromosomes. I wonder if ease of detection in some varieties of abnormality may play an inadvertent role too.

[Tv9m]

> And then the slippery slope, “we can also improve the odds of higher intellect, being taller , thinner, etc”.

I would love to have been born in a world that had slid to the bottom of that particular slope.

[Eisenstein]

Cross your fingers to be born rich!

[Tv9m]

I'm always confused. The NWO conspiracy people say that gene editing will be prohibitively expensive (like owning a yacht is), but the real life examples I see don't seem that way. What are some good examples of services that could be done cheaply but are intentionally made expensive for the sake of exclusion?

[Eisenstein]

> but the real life examples I see don't seem that way.

In what situation would removing an egg, fertilizing it, altering its genetic sequence, and them implanting the embryo into a person be consider cheap?

[Tv9m]

Looks like IVF costs around $12,000 today. Considering that this is for your own child, I bet it would be one of the least expensive parts of raising them. I also expect it would become very cheap after it went mainstream.

> The Human Genome Project was the international research effort to determine the DNA sequence of the entire human genome. It took 13 years and was published in 2003, with an estimated cost of over $300 million. Today, a whole human genome can be sequenced in one day for under $1000.

https://frontlinegenomics.com/a-history-of-sequencing/

[Eisenstein]

$12,000 is more than the average yearly income for a person on this planet. The USA has only 300 million or so people in it. What are the chances you are born in a place where $12,000 is considered 'the least expensive parts of raising a child'?

[majani]

Many species have already slid to the bottom of that slope. The phenomenon is called Fisherian Runaway, and it's not pretty.

[Tv9m]

> and it's not pretty.

It feels somewhat ironic that when I looked up "Fisherian Runaway" the first thing I saw was an image of a peacock.

Evolution by "persistent, directional female choice" seems like exactly what our species needs to unfuck itself.

[thatfrenchguy]

One interesting balancing thing though is that because people who do IVF tend to be older / have more high risk pregnancies, you’re more likely to have issues there.

[abledon]

who are the biggest IVF players in the space right now?