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#1017 - Jonathan Anomaly - What Embryo Selection Means for Humanity

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Nov 8, 2025

Guest

Jonathan Anomaly

Dr. Jonathan Anomaly is a philosopher and author specializing in ethics and public policy. In a thought-provoking discussion, he explores the potential of embryo selection, from erasing genetic diseases to selecting traits like intelligence. He highlights the ethical dilemmas of playing God and the slippery slope toward eugenics. Anomaly debates the societal implications, including inequality and parental responsibilities. Ultimately, he advocates for transparency in genetic practices while pondering how these advancements might redefine our views on luck and merit.

02:02:40

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Episode notes

Push Clinics For Raw Data And Choice

If your clinic resists polygenic selection, request raw PGT-A data and seek external validation.
Clinics vary: some gatekeep while others support informed parental choice.

Insist On Transparent Validation

Demand validation: ask companies how they build and validate polygenic scores across ancestries.
Insist on sibling/within-family validation and transparent performance metrics.

Use Sibling Studies To Validate Scores

Validate polygenic scores with within-family sibling studies to know they apply to embryos.
Prefer companies that test predictive power across real siblings and diverse cohorts.

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Why People Worry About Embryo Selection

00:12 • 1min

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How IVF Currently Selects Embryos

01:30 • 1min

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Romance, Choice, and the Ethics of Selection

02:57 • 1min

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Public Attitudes: Disease vs. Intelligence Screening

04:01 • 2min

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Why Mental Traits Trigger Stronger Reactions

05:58 • 1min

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Slippery Slope to Eugenics and Liberal Eugenics

07:12 • 2min

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Inequality Concerns and Redistribution Tradeoffs

09:08 • 2min

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Autonomy, Insurance, and Moral Disagreement

11:28 • 3min

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Making Genetics Conversation Less 'Icky'

14:30 • 5min

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Explaining What Herosite Does Technically

19:24 • 9min

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Access, Gatekeepers, and Democratizing Selection

28:10 • 50sec

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Clinics' Mixed Reactions to Polygenic Selection

29:00 • 5min

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Validating Polygenic Scores and Avoiding Bad Providers

34:20 • 4min

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Anecdote: Misleading Schizophrenia Risk Reports

38:38 • 1min

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How Polygenic Scores Are Derived and Validated

39:44 • 3min

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Ancestry Limits and Efforts to Improve Transferability

42:25 • 2min

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Using Adult Data to Validate Embryo Predictions

44:51 • 4min

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Efficacy: What Improvements Selection Can Achieve

48:56 • 4min

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Real Trade-offs: Intelligence vs. Disease Risk

53:00 • 2min

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Buyer’s and Parent Guilt Around Selecting Embryos

54:44 • 4min

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Does More Control Increase Parental Culpability?

58:40 • 2min

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Cultural Norms, Pressure, and the Risk of Coercive Expectations

01:00:51 • 4min

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Which Traits Should Be Forbidden or Shunned?

01:04:34 • 7min

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Company Policies and Moral Red Lines

01:11:41 • 56sec

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Pleiotropy Study: Mostly Positive Correlations

01:12:37 • 4min

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Personhood and the Non-Identity Problem

01:16:16 • 5min

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Thought Experiments on Replacement and Moral Reasoning

01:21:20 • 5min

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Pro-Choice Views Versus Opposition to Embryo Selection

01:26:30 • 2min

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Will Selection Change Ideas of Luck and Merit?

01:28:46 • 8min

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Genetics, Parenting, and Adjusting Expectations

01:36:52 • 3min

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Screening Psychiatric Conditions: Stigma or Compassion?

01:40:10 • 5min

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Embryo, Fetus, and Personhood Distinctions

01:45:00 • 4min

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Regulatory Red Lines: Transparency and Validation

01:48:40 • 3min

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Open-Source Scores, Competition, and Innovation Access

01:51:53 • 42sec

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Global Dynamics: China, Middle East, and Policy Divergence

01:52:35 • 4min

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Near-Future Outlook: Adoption, Pushback, and Subsidies

01:56:32 • 4min

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Practical Resources and Heresite Introduction

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Derek Parfit's "Reasons and Persons" is a landmark work in contemporary philosophy, profoundly impacting discussions on personal identity, ethics, and rationality. Parfit challenges traditional notions of the self, arguing that our sense of personal identity is less coherent than we assume. He explores the implications of this for our moral obligations, particularly concerning future generations. The book delves into the complexities of decision-making under uncertainty, examining how we should weigh our present interests against the potential consequences of our actions for the future. Parfit's rigorous analysis and thought-provoking arguments have had a lasting influence on various fields, including ethics, political philosophy, and decision theory. His work continues to stimulate debate and inspire new research.

Dr Jonathan Anomaly is a philosopher, professor and an author.

What if you could design your own “super baby”? Imagine erasing genetic diseases, removing inherited conditions, and even selecting traits for beauty or intelligence. How close are we to making this possible, and what unintended consequences could this unleash?

Expect to learn why embryo selection will be the next frontier of fertility planning, why screening for traits beyond disease is a slippery slope toward eugenics, what the moral, ethical and realistic arguments are for embryo selection and how big of a societal gap this will create, if you can return the super baby if it didn’t yield desired results, if there were regulations in this space, what red lines would be drawn and what would be left to the market and much more…

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