Polygenic Risk Scores for Embryo Selection

[Angela]

This article claims it's not yet ready for prime time.

See:
https://academic.oup.com/humrep/advance-article/doi/10.1093/humrep/deac159/6646556?login=false

Perhaps, but I would bet a substantial sum that Elon Musk insists on his children being conceived outside the womb for that reason. He has, what, 17 children. The vast majority are boys, btw. Guess we don't make the grade.

How different from my father's attitude. He was thrilled he had a girl, and when I decided to have children, he hoped for girls then too. I guess he took seriously the, " A son's a son till he takes a wife, but a daughter's a daughter till the end of your life", saying.

He was right, too.

 

[bigsnake49]

My son's wife is pregnant and they will have a son, so four generations on the male side have had sons as the first born. No reason to select unless you want variety.

 

[Angela]

My son's wife is pregnant and they will have a son, so four generations on the male side have had sons as the first born. No reason to select unless you want variety.

Sorry, I don't understand.

Last I heard, the sex of the child is determined by the mother's alleles, not the father's.

Second, I don't understand how the second sentence is related to the first.

You just "knew" it would be a male, and that was your preference, and you don't care if you ever have female grandchildren, so your family wouldn't NEED to select among embryos? Or, knowing your grandchild is male, your family wouldn't need to select embryos because you again don't care if you have female grandchildren? Whatever comes after this is fine?

Or, the only people who would want the power to select for sex are those who clearly have a preference and don't care about variety? That's self-evident from the fact that some people DO choose to do that, isn't it?

 

[bigsnake49]

Sorry, I don't understand.

Last I heard, the sex of the child is determined by the mother's alleles, not the father's.

Second, I don't understand how the second sentence is related to the first.

You just "knew" it would be a male, and that was your preference, and you don't care if you ever have female grandchildren, so your family wouldn't NEED to select among embryos? Or, knowing your grandchild is male, your family wouldn't need to select embryos because you again don't care if you have female grandchildren? Whatever comes after this is fine?

Or, the only people who would want the power to select for sex are those who clearly have a preference and don't care about variety? That's self-evident from the fact that some people DO choose to do that, isn't it?

No, I would have welcomed either gender. It just so happened that for at least the last four generations the first born child is a male. I would not want to select a gender and I would leave it to chance if it was up to me. Now I am not against genetic engineering to eradicate severe genetic abnormalities or predispositions but I think it frivolous to select for gender.

 

[Angela]

^^Couldn't agree more, but I think the trend of history is against us.

Just saw the Chinese announced the birth of a child whose genes had been altered to supposedly remove risk factors for Type 2 Diabetes. I don't consider that such a horrific problem that I would let scientists meddle around with my child's genetic code. We know so little still about which alleles code for what, and most traits are the result of many alleles. Then, you remove one, and what effect might that have on another function.

Leave it be unless it's extremely, extremely, important.