Startup Wants to Give Parents the Power to Create Genetically Superior Babies

A 25-year-old founder has rolled out what might be the most ethically murky subscription service ever devised: a genetic ranking app for embryos. For $6,000, Nucleus Genomics will let you swipe right on the embryos that will turn into your future kids, sorted by their projected intelligence, appearance, and health.

The startup, founded by Kian Sadeghi and backed by Peter Thiel, who is a big fan of eugenics despite or perhaps because of its enormous popularity with far-right racists, is peddling a new service called Nucleus Embryo. It allows parents to select which fertilized eggs they want to implant based on their most desired combo of traits.

It’s eugenics but Tinder-ized. Who knew that creating your genetically superior baby could be so easy and fun?!

Startup Founder Claims His App Can Give Parents Smarter Babies

Nucleus also offers a $500 saliva test that claims to screen for hundreds of diseases. The company’s other “innovations” include Nucleus IQ, a separate tool that claims to predict your future child’s intelligence based on your and your partner’s DNA.

Sure, geneticists say it doesn’t work, and the math is sketchy at best, but how are you going to live long enough to become a cautionary tale if you don’t keep trying?

Sadeghi is bizarrely obsessed with genetic perfection. He’s previously launched a dating app based on genetic compatibility. Nucleus positions its services as democratizing access to valuable genetic information that can help prospective parents make more informed decisions about their child’s future.

But so far, the promise of genetically engineering a kid with kick-ass SAT scores and a sick jawline for $6,000 seems more like snake oil than reality. Just think of how miserable that designer baby will feel if it grows up to not live up to its lofty genetically enhanced expectations.

If you thought gifted kid disillusionment was rough, wait until you see eugenics kid depression.