Secret Startup Wants to Gene-Hack First US Baby

According to Futurism, a clandestine startup called Preventive is secretly working to create the first known genetically-modified baby outside China, backed by tech billionaires including Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. The company has spent the last six months attempting to edit human embryos to eliminate hereditary diseases and has reportedly identified an anonymous couple interested in their services. This comes despite germline gene editing being strictly prohibited for federally-funded research in the US and facing widespread scientific condemnation, with leading organizations calling for a 10-year global moratorium. The practice carries such stigma that Chinese scientist He Jiankui received a three-year prison sentence and permanent scientific exile after creating genetically modified twins in 2018.

Frankenstein ethics in real life

Here’s the thing about germline editing – it’s not like regular gene therapy that affects just one person. We’re talking about making permanent changes to human DNA that get passed down through generations. And our understanding of genetics is still pretty shaky. It would be incredibly easy to accidentally introduce a problem that could haunt families for centuries. The whole situation feels like something straight out of Frankenstein, but with real human babies instead of fictional monsters.

Legal loopholes and billionaire backing

Now here’s where it gets really concerning. The congressional ban only applies to research using federal funds – private money can technically fund this stuff, though the regulations are murky at best. Preventive’s CEO admits they’re “compelled” to work outside the US because the FDA can’t even consider applications for human trials. So we’ve got billionaires funding ethically questionable science that can’t happen in their own country. Does that sound responsible to you?

A chilling precedent

We’ve seen this movie before. He Jiankui’s 2018 experiment with CRISPR-edited twins ended his career and landed him in prison, yet here we are with wealthy tech figures apparently eager to repeat the mistake. The scientific community isn’t just cautious – they’re calling for a decade-long pause because the risks are that severe. Meanwhile, other startups are already pushing boundaries with services like predicting embryo IQ and polygenic screening for $9,999.

Eugenics by another name

Basically, we’re staring down the barrel of modern eugenics. The wealthy could literally design their children while everyone else gets left behind. And let’s be clear – America has a deep and ugly history with eugenics that we’ve never properly addressed. From sentencing laws to class-based sterilization policies and child welfare systems, we’ve seen how this story goes. The technology might be new, but the underlying impulse to engineer “better” humans is terrifyingly familiar.

There are better ways

Look, legitimate gene therapy for existing patients is making amazing progress – treating actual diseases in living children without altering the human gene pool. That’s where the real medical breakthroughs are happening. But germline editing? It’s solving hypothetical problems for future generations while creating very real ethical nightmares for our own. As one commentator noted after the first CRISPR embryo edits in 2017, this technology won’t liberate humanity any more than automation gave workers more leisure time. It’ll just create new forms of inequality.