Poll: 80% of Americans have reservations about embryonic screening

A new nationwide survey has disclosed that the majority of American voters harbor considerable moral and social concerns about the increased use of embryo screening technologies — tools touted by Silicon Valley startups promising to “optimize” the next generation.

Key Takeaways:

• A recent poll from the Ethics and Public Policy Center shows that the vast majority of Americans are not comfortable with the eugenic screening and grading of human embryos.

• The center called for "ethical safeguards" and broader reporting on how embryos are tested.

The Details: 

A poll from The Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC) revealed that 80% of American voters do not want Silicon Valley to “hack” reproduction, according to an article by Catholic News Agency (CNA). Embryo screening involves grading embryos based on perceived "quality," as well as separating them based on sex, eye color, and even potential IQ.

The EPPC poll stated: 

Yet while Americans support measures to help infertile couples have children, they express concerns about broader implications of these technologies. Four in five respondents to a new EPPC/YouGov survey about the future of family said they had at least some concerns about the way embryo screening technology could be used.

In response to the poll’s findings, EPPC Fellow Patrick Brown declared:

"The politics around fertility and family can get complicated, but these findings are incredibly straightforward. Americans aren’t interested in letting Big Tech hack reproduction. There are real concerns about how embryonic screening could be used to usher in an era of eugenics, and real appetite for commonsense reforms that protect both the dignity of human life and what it means to treat parenthood as a gift, rather than a product.”

Eugenics and IVF: Couples can now ‘choose’ children based on a genetic score

The poll assessed standpoints regarding embryonic screening by respondent characteristics, such as age, sex, and 2024 presidential vote. Women were more prone to having reservations about embryo screening than men, while older voters (ages 46+) were more likely to be hesitant towards the practice than younger voters (ages 18-45). 

Additionally, the EPPC poll discussed the dangers of embryonic screening, including some of its possible ramifications, such as: 

• Eugenic pressures and the remaking of the relationship between parents and children.

• A radical change in the nature of parenthood, in which would-be parents move from "recipients of the gift of a new child to consumers looking for a product made to order."

• The undermining of social support and research funding into diseases, convincing parents to destroy embryos with possible health conditions, or face social shaming for "taking an unacceptable risk."

• Discarding embryos who "don't make the cut" instead of "curing disease ... in the womb."

• The further normalization of the destruction of human lives deemed unworthy.

The EPPC report urged lawmakers to anticipate problems due to embryonic screening before these issues become mainstream. The report suggests the "[a]mending the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to ban outright, or limit the commercial sale or advertising of tests that purport to offer the ability to identify an embryo’s predicted physical characteristics, intelligence, or other outcomes.”

It also suggests "[r]equiring any hospitals, clinics, or research facilities that receive federal funding to adopt best practices that include bioethical safeguards prohibiting the use of predictive algorithms for non-health related screening.” 

In addition, the report calls for the expansion of "federal monitoring of assisted reproduction through the Centers for Disease Control, to include broader reporting on the use of pre-implementation testing and the number of embryos discarded in those processes.”

Currently, however, the CDC is experiencing issues with reporting on reproductive issues, including abortion.

The Bottom Line:

For pro-life advocates, the EPPC poll highlights familiar concerns.

The moral logic behind embryo screening — choosing embryonic lives for implantation based on characteristics such as sex and eye color while disposing others based on a "grading" system — reflects the blatant commodification of human life already happening in surrogacy and IVF (in-vitro fertilization).

Embryonic screening for eugenic purposes is a serious affront to the sanctity and equality of all human life.