{"id":2239232,"date":"2024-05-07T13:59:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-07T17:59:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/orchid-healths-genome-testing-promises-healthy-babies-but-delivers-morally-deplorable-eugenics\/"},"modified":"2024-05-07T14:07:03","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T18:07:03","slug":"orchid-healths-genome-testing-promises-healthy-babies-but-delivers-morally-deplorable-eugenics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/orchid-healths-genome-testing-promises-healthy-babies-but-delivers-morally-deplorable-eugenics\/","title":{"rendered":"Orchid Health&#8217;s Gene Testing Offers &#8216;Healthy Babies&#8217; Raises Ethical Concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Forchid-healths-genome-testing-promises-healthy-babies-but-delivers-morally-deplorable-eugenics%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2239232&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>New <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-china-is-stealing-dna-of-u-s-citizens\/\" title=\"Report: China is Stealing DNA of U.S. Citizens\">genetic testing<\/a> by Orchid Health raises eugenics concerns in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/china-announces-major-investment-in-ivf-to-reverse-birth-rate-collapse\/\" title=\"China Announces Major Investment in IVF to Reverse Birth Rate Collapse\">assisted reproductive technology<\/a>. Parents can \u200cselect embryos based on genetic \u2062risks.\u2062 Orchid offers whole-genome analysis for better decision-making, facing controversy over data use.\u2063 Critics question the ethics of screening unborn children for genetic conditions. Orchid emphasizes &#8220;healthy babies,&#8221;\u200c sparking debate on ethical implications.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Newly expanded genetic testing expands concerns about eugenics in assisted reproductive technology by allowing parents to choose which of their unborn children live and die based on their alleged predisposition to physical and mental conditions. <\/p>\n<p>Orchid Health, whose motto is \u201cHave healthy babies,\u201d is the startup responsible for developing and marketing the\u00a0first commercially available whole-genome-sequencing embryo test in nearly three dozen fertility facilities in the United States.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1373407119\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c82e5604bfde29bbe843de17a0222215 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-c82e5604bfde29bbe843de17a0222215\"><\/div>\n<p>For $12,500, anyone who already paid the hefty price to undergo in vitro fertilization and create embryos can have five of them biopsied \u2014 the process of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=y-ZL3pYNxno\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">removing five cells out of the 120-cell embryo<\/a> \u2014 by genetic screeners. The San Francisco-based company. Orchid claims its whole-genome analysis will help IVF customers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orchidhealth.com\/\">\u201cmitigate more risks\u201d<\/a> when choosing which of their unborn children to implant and carry to term. <\/p>\n<p>The technology <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orchidhealth.com\/science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">allegedly<\/a> sequences more than 99 percent of an embryo\u2019s DNA for potential diseases like Alzheimer\u2019s, disorders like schizophrenia, cancers, defects, chromosomal abnormalities, forms of autism, and more. <\/p>\n<p>Orchid achieves this by combining the results of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/americas-rent-a-womb-industry-lures-an-alarming-number-of-chinese-nationals\/\" title=\"China's Citizens Flock to America's Surrogacy Business\">preimplantation genetic testing<\/a> for aneuploidy (PGT-A) with PGT for monogenic or single-gene diseases (PGT-M), and PGT for polygenic\u00a0risk, or conditions that can manifest into adulthood. The screening then produces a report card with a long list of hypotheticals about an embryonic child\u2019s \u201cquality of life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Orchid <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orchidhealth.com\/clinician-information\">claims <\/a>to \u201cadhere to the highest clinical and scientific standards.\u201d But shortly after its December 2023 debut, the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, an <a href=\"https:\/\/pgc.unc.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">international coalition of more than 800 scientists<\/a>, accused the company of emitting risk estimates based on data supplied through PGC\u2019s research. PGC said that Orchid\u2019s alleged use of the data <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PGCgenetics\/status\/1732878104572440743\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">breaches conditions<\/a> that such data should only be used for \u201cnon-commercial scientific research\u201d and is not permitted \u201cto develop any predictive tests for an unborn individual.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-61d3bc19e57bec769489676aa682e07b fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-61d3bc19e57bec769489676aa682e07b\"><\/div>\n<p>\u201cAny use for commercial testing or for testing of unborn individuals violates the terms by which PGC &#038; our collaborators\u2019 data are made available,\u201d PGC <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PGCgenetics\/status\/1732878103062417459\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said in a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Orchid denied the allegations but refused to say <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/genetics-group-slams-company-using-its-data-screen-embryos-genomes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">where it sourced its data<\/a>. The company did not respond to The Federalist\u2019s questions about the data or whether biopsying embryos harms their implantation or survival rate in any way. <\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, the company\u2019s tangle with global scientists about the principles guiding its groundbreaking ART is only the beginning of the ethical headache Orchid and its founder Noor Siddiqui have created. <\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Smokescreen<\/h2>\n<p>The mother of the first baby born after undergoing Orchid embryo testing said in an interview for the company that she and her husband chose it because they were aging out of natural reproduction and wanted \u201ca little bit further genetic testing.\u201d They used Orchid to screen for disorders like diabetes and bipolar, which run in their families, presumably opting to destroy or shelve any embryos that came back with high risk for those conditions. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-14b0f40259c8f48becaa5d15e8996ad0 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-14b0f40259c8f48becaa5d15e8996ad0\"><\/div>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <span class=\"tuFHzZQlHU982zm4VqbvSDbChRgp6ackGP3qyuOAof7wS0j4M0T1NCOfVTnyJmNeJeQgdDLxkYsAiiXZvalI9sKK\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">SO INCREDIBLY PROUD to share 2 HUGE updates:<\/p>\n<p>1) The first baby was born using <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OrchidInc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@OrchidInc<\/a> technology \u2014 and he\u2019s super cute \ud83e\udd70 <\/p>\n<p>2) I tested my own embryos with Orchid \u2014 we got SO much information &#038; l feel confident now \ud83d\ude80 <\/p>\n<p>This is the future of how babies will be born! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/cKkO3byVuv\">pic.twitter.com\/cKkO3byVuv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Noor Siddiqui (@noor_siddiqui_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/noor_siddiqui_\/status\/1782556586650767423?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 22, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Orchid\u2019s founder Siddiqui, similarly, used the technology to evaluate which of her 16 embryos will win the war for implantation once she takes them out of cryopreservation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just avoided risk for hundreds of diseases that otherwise you wouldn\u2019t have been able to detect until after the baby was born again,\u201d Siddiqui said excitedly in a company video after comparing report cards for two of her embryos. \u201cLooking at embryos before you\u2019ve decided which one to transfer so you\u2019re able to get all this monogenic information, that is completely life-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Siddiqui\u2019s goal isn\u2019t simply to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=y-ZL3pYNxno\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">\u201cmake sci-fi real\u201d<\/a> by normalizing genetic embryo testing for IVF participants around the country.  She wants her handpicked breeding technology to be the \u201cfuture of how all babies will be created.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe last thing that I would want is that we already today know that a genetic disease exists, but I just didn\u2019t bother to see if that\u2019s something that would affect my future child,\u201d Siddiqui said. \u201cI think basically sex is for fun and embryo screening is for babies. I think that it\u2019s going to become insane not to screen for these things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to her, \u201cthe most heartbreaking thing that can possibly happen is that child has a really severe condition has a birth defect.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to make it so that every family can have a healthy baby. For anyone who\u2019s had a personal experience whether it\u2019s them themselves a parent or sibling, they don\u2019t want to see their kids suffer in that same way,\u201d Siddiqui concluded.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <span class=\"0AClvMkDjtNoYbIghOBTQU87J54PaHEVxruZF1cs2LzmiK\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The world&#8217;s 1st whole genome embryo report is no longer sci-fi, <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/OrchidInc?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@OrchidInc<\/a> just made it real.<\/p>\n<p>Episode 23 of S\u00b3 visits a live IVF clinic to demonstrate how it works. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/H6Xyd3EMd7\">pic.twitter.com\/H6Xyd3EMd7<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jason Carman (@jasonjoyride) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jasonjoyride\/status\/1739025689893044490?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 24, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Number, Not  A Name<\/h2>\n<p>The people buying into this technology, like Siddiqui, also seem to be under the impression that scientific knowledge bestows the power to eliminate human suffering. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the way to reduce disease and suffering in kids, and is the best thing you can do for your child and yourself. The fact that we have screened for so much gives us peace of mind. Understanding our genetics is a huge advantage,\u201d Orchid customers Rohan and Jen say in a review plastered on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orchidhealth.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">website\u2019s front page. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The unspoken consequence of that quixotic notion is that the embryos deemed too predisposed to physical or mental suffering \u2014 something every human experiences in life\u2014 are sidelined, abandoned, or even eradicated. <\/p>\n<p>As I <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/08\/popular-genetic-testing-pits-unborn-siblings-against-each-other-and-the-highest-scorer-gets-to-live\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previously wrote<\/a> in The Federalist, genomic tests like Orchid promote pitting \u201cmicroscopic siblings against each other in a biological battle.\u201d The winner snuggles into a uterus, <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/12\/04\/the-conservative-pro-life-case-against-surrogacy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hopefully her biological mother\u2019s<\/a> and not a surrogate\u2019s, and has the privilege of being born and growing up. The losers are frozen in time, delayed, or disqualified altogether from implantation based on a report card of what-ifs. <\/p>\n<p>Not only are PGT tests <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/04\/20\/health\/pgta-ivf-pregnancy-test.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">notoriously unreliable<\/a>, they also give the highest bidders an excuse to deprive their already-created, unborn children of life simply because they may or may not possess certain physical qualities or the potential to develop certain conditions. <\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no doubt that genomic screenings like Orchid will only contribute to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/257066\/more-human-embryos-destroyed-through-ivf-than-abortion-every-year\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">millions of embryos<\/a> that are destroyed or forsaken to indefinite cryopreservation. Yet, if Siddiqui and Orchid\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/startup-orchid-rolls-out-genetic-testing-service-for-ivf-raises-12-million-8c0753ad?st=7ffqml58yxv2gnn&#038;reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">long list of Ivy League and venture capitalist investors<\/a> like Harvard Medical School geneticist\u00a0George Church and 23andMe\u00a0co-founder and CEO\u00a0Anne Wojcicki get their way, making human life expendable will become an even more normalized practice in the ART world instead of a reprehensible one.<\/p>\n<p>Siddiqui and Orchid customers will inevitably deny that hand-selecting embryos based on genomic testing equates to eugenics. Yet they continue to promote and harness a technology that determines the value of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/massachusetts-history-class-forced-students-to-comment-on-how-systemic-racism-impacted-george-floyd\/\" title=\"Massachusetts History Class Forced Students To Comment On How \u2018Systemic Racism\u2019 Impacted George Floyd\">life based<\/a> on a pseudo-scientific numbers game. <\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-88785d9acb6f1271b39cc7092d254175 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-88785d9acb6f1271b39cc7092d254175\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The recent expansion of genetic testing raises eugenics concerns in assisted reproductive technology. Parents can now select which unborn children survive based on genetic predispositions. Orchid Health aims to &#8220;Have healthy babies&#8221; and is behind the first commercially available whole-genome-sequencing<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":490,"featured_media":2239233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-07-at-9.13.08-AM-e1715091381628-1024x575.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2239232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Screenshot-2024-05-07-at-9.13.08-AM-e1715091381628-1024x575.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/490"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2239232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2239232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2239233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2239232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2239232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2239232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}