The Genie Is Out of the Bottle for Polygenic Screening of Embryos: Where To From Here?

The ELSI Friday Forum was held on Friday, March 10, 2023.

A growing number of private companies are offering prospective parents using in-vitro fertilization polygenic screening of embryos to identify the risks for developing complex diseases later in life. Children have already been born from IVF cycles that integrated this screening. The use of polygenic risk reports for children and adults in clinical care raises unique questions about parental reproductive freedom as well as the forces and societal values that mobilize this practice. What is the validity of polygenic screening? Should polygenic screening of embryos become a standard offering as part of IVF, alongside currently common screens for aneuploidies? What are the risks? How should the conditions for which polygenic screening of embryos are offered be determined, and by what criteria? This ELSI Friday Forum explores the ELSI challenges of polygenic screening of embryos and stakeholders’ perspectives on this emerging practice. We will discuss its risks, limitations, and potential benefits for families and society at large.

• Francesca Forzano, MD, FRCP (Guy's & St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, King's College London)
• Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, PhD, JD (Harvard Medical School)
• Moderated by Anna Lewis, DPhil (Harvard University, Brigham and Women's Hospital)