I debated whether to use the term “superbabies”. It has been used by quite a few of my friends who are having polygenically screened children and it a little more legible than the term “polygenic screening”. So I ultimately opted to use it for that reason.
Maybe it would have been better to title this something like “How to Have Polygenically Screened Children: 2026 edition”.
(As I have told GeneSmith, superbabies is also IMO a mildly toxic term, as it’s a bad concept to apply to children. For example, it makes it seem like there’s some category here, which there isn’t much of, and it makes it seem like a product you’re buying (“designer babies”), which it isn’t (they are people), and it subtly bakes in a universal notion of good (similar to “enhancement”), which there shouldn’t be, and it kinda instrumentalizes / objectifies kids, which you shouldn’t do.)
I debated whether to use the term “superbabies”. It has been used by quite a few of my friends who are having polygenically screened children and it a little more legible than the term “polygenic screening”. So I ultimately opted to use it for that reason.
Maybe it would have been better to title this something like “How to Have Polygenically Screened Children: 2026 edition”.
(As I have told GeneSmith, superbabies is also IMO a mildly toxic term, as it’s a bad concept to apply to children. For example, it makes it seem like there’s some category here, which there isn’t much of, and it makes it seem like a product you’re buying (“designer babies”), which it isn’t (they are people), and it subtly bakes in a universal notion of good (similar to “enhancement”), which there shouldn’t be, and it kinda instrumentalizes / objectifies kids, which you shouldn’t do.)
Yeah, I understand, but term dilution happens by three or four small concessions like this.