Private bioengineering may soon become mainstream for family planning and health culture.

A quiet revolution in biotechnology may soon shape the first generation of humans designed not by during training or natural selection, but in fertility clinics.

Nucleus Genomics, a U.S. startup based in New York, has unveiled the world’s first software platform that allows parents to genetically screen and select embryos during IVF based on a wide range of traits — from heart disease risk to potential IQ, height, and even longevity.

Known as Nucleus Embryo, the service enables prospective parents to analyze the DNA of up to 20 embryos, providing polygenic scores for over 900 diseases and more than 40 non-medical traits.

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For a price of $5,999, customers receive detailed reports estimating the likelihood of various conditions, such as cancer, diabetes, depression, or Alzheimer's, along with physical traits like eye color, hair type, and even cognitive aptitude. The entire process — from DNA upload to receiving a “developmental map” of embryo options — can take just a few hours.

The company’s founder, Kian Sadeghi, sees this as the next leap in preventive healthcare.

Motivated by a personal tragedy involving a relative who died from a preventable genetic disease, Sadeghi believes the key to a healthier future begins before birth and his technology appears as a timely instrument of generational health, not just parental choice.

Uses for bio-editing are virtually unlimited as parents will opt for physically and intellectually advanced individuals. Who wouldn’t want a beautiful, healthy, and smart kid with better life opportunities and survival chances?

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Not to mention that such people will be fitter for space missions, perhaps making one day as the first generation of colonists on the Moon or Mars. Just imagine new humans who are less susceptible to osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, or cancer.

Under this logic, genetic selection might become a precondition for the first “off-world” medical screenings — where polygenic analysis complements psychometric testing. And DNA testing for disease prediction isn’t something new – researchers have been familiar with this method for years, which has been limited to science rather than employed in commercial practice.

Still, the promise of “superhumans” raises as many concerns as it does possibilities. Fertility specialists and bioethicists warn that polygenic scores offer probabilities, not certainties. An embryo ranked as “low risk” could still develop a disease, while one flagged as higher risk might live a perfectly healthy life.

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Beyond the technical limitations lies a deeper ethical unease: Are we engineering better health—or sliding into modern-day eugenics?

Dr. Paula Amato, for example, a fertility expert at Oregon Health & Science University, acknowledges that such embryo rankings could influence societal values in troubling ways. Ethicists worry that these types of rankings will result in a society that doesn’t value certain types of children, she cautioned.

Although some argue that parental autonomy should extend to selecting traits beyond disease prevention, others see a slippery slope toward commodifying life. If health traits today, what stops society from preferring only tall, intelligent, or athletic children tomorrow?