Marianne Brandon Ph.D.
The Future of Intimacy
GENETICS
Genomics and the new science of making babies.
KEY POINTS
- Genome sequencing now makes family-building more about choice than fate.
- Parents can already select embryos for sex and genetic health.
- Ethical and psychological stakes are rising as this tech advances.
- Societal guardrails, not just tech, should steer these profound shifts.
Decades ago, building a family meant wishing on the genetic lottery: two people decided to start a family, and hoped for healthy, happy kids. Today, reproductive medicine is rewriting those odds. With IVF, prospective parents already have options to screen embryos, not just for sex or severe genetic diseases, but increasingly for a full range of genetic traits. Thanks to whole genome sequencing (WGS), the choice isn’t science fiction; we can now analyze all 20,000+ human genes in an embryo with better than 99.9 percent accuracy for many mutations and chromosomal problems (assuming parents are willing to forego natural conception, and instead supply their eggs and sperm to a lab for embryo creation and analysis). Imagine a world where diseases like Huntington’s or muscular dystrophy literally disappear from family trees.
Source: Art_Photo/Shutterstock
The price tag is still out of reach for most. However, over time, technology costs tend to drop, and what’s rare today could be routine tomorrow. Insurance will lag behind, which means that for a while, only the wealthy will have access to this technology. Broad access will take time, but the writing is on the wall: “designer babies” could shift from sci-fi to a checkbox on tomorrow’s fertility questionnaires.
Dilemmas at the Cutting Edge
With choice comes challenges. Choosing embryos with “better” traits carries echoes of a dark past and leaves us facing tough questions. Is this the era of modern eugenics, but controlled by individual parents rather than the state? Are we opening the door to pressure-packed ideals for perfect children?
There’s also a new inequity in parenting. Right now, only families with substantial resources can exert such granular control over their baby’s genetic start in life. In the future, if more children are essentially “primed” for health or performance while others are left to fate, what happens to fairness within our schools and communities? Will classrooms and relationships be shaped by the genetic choices parents could or could not afford? Imagine being the only non-gene-edited child in a sea of classmates designed for advantage.
And what about the inner world of connection? If intimacy and family-making become engineered acts, what will it mean for the full-hearted, often messy acceptance that defines parenthood? Children might wonder whether they are loved for who they are or for the characteristics they were selected to display. Some may thrive, but others could buckle under the pressure to perform, as if their parents’ hopes are etched into their DNA.
Of course, even as technology advances, human nature is complex. No amount of gene selection can guarantee health, happiness, or greatness. Thus, expectations rooted in science may breed disappointment and perhaps complicate the parent-child bond.
Risks for the Future
It’s important to recognize several profound risks already emerging. First, allowing the wealthy to engineer healthier, smarter, or stronger children could drastically widen the social divide far beyond what education or money alone have ever done.
Second, if large numbers of parents start choosing for the same traits — say, height, blue eyes, or athleticism — we risk losing the diversity and natural quirks that make us authentically human. Children may feel crushed by unrealistic standards or find their uniqueness diminished by a social drive toward sameness.
Finally, families in low-resource regions may be cut off from these advances altogether, deepening inequalities on even a global scale. For example, it is not far off to acknowledge that this tech will be unavailable to parents in poorer countries, thus exacerbating global inequalities, but now on the level of human DNA.
It may sound to you like I am against this technology. I am not. What I am against is the lack of awareness or guardrails in place. With the exception of a few professional organizations, such as ASHG and HUGO, the potentials inherent in this technology are largely ignored. As with other advancing technologies, start-ups and big business are determining the fate of humanity, rather than humans themselves making these decisions from a place of wisdom. What is utilized one way today will be used in other ways tomorrow. That is what we are unprepared for and naïvely ignoring.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Whole genome sequencing promises a future where the building blocks of parenting are not just visible but engineered, and the debate is no longer about technology alone, but about values. We must decide whether parenthood should become a blend of unconditional acceptance and consumer-level upgrading. This shift could rewrite the very rules for future generations.
This isn’t science fiction; it’s a crossroads we are ignoring today. On one hand, this technology offers real hope for healthier families and fewer devastating genetic diseases. On the other, it raises ethical dilemmas touching everything from justice to the core of family love. Do we want reproduction to resemble a shopping trip for features? And if so, will our children feel cherished for their natural selves, or shaped to fit a mold?
One thing is certain: the future of baby-making won’t look like the past. The choices we make in the coming decade will shape not only the future of intimacy, what it means to be a parent, or a child, in the first place.
References
Peter, M., Hill, M., Fisher, J. et al. Equity and timeliness as factors in the effectiveness of an ethical prenatal sequencing service: reflections from parents and professionals. Eur J Hum Genet 33, 360–367 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-024-01700-0
van der Geest, M.A., Maeckelberghe, E.L.M., van Gijn, M.E. et al. Systematic reanalysis of genomic data by diagnostic laboratories: a scoping review of ethical, economic, legal and (psycho)social implications. Eur J Hum Genet 32, 489–497 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41431-023-01529-z
