HAVE YOU SEEN WHAT’S HAPPENING IN NEW YORK? FOR $9,999 YOU CAN “HAVE AN OPTIMIZED CHILD”

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New York has become a laboratory where something is happening that, until recently, we would have relegated to science fiction. Billboards from the biotech startup Nucleus Genomics have appeared on the subway walls , with a slogan as simple as it is destabilizing: Have Your Best Baby . Behind that seemingly innocuous phrase lies a paradigm shift that concerns us all.

The promise is straightforward: to analyze embryos created through in vitro fertilization, decode their genetic profile using hundreds of markers, and indicate to prospective parents which—according to their algorithms—is the most “suitable.” This includes physical traits, disease predisposition, emotional stability, intelligence statistics, and the likelihood of developing certain conditions. All of this is transformed into a comparative score that should guide the choice of the best embryo.

Sequencing technology isn’t new. What’s new is its transformation into a commercial service, displayed on a subway like any other consumer product. The implicit message is what truly ushers in a new era: your child’s biology can be improved—if you can afford it.

The scientific community, however, urges caution. Not because genetics doesn’t matter, but because what is presented today as solid predictions is, in reality, an incomplete mosaic. Complex traits—intelligence, mental health, cognitive performance—don’t depend on DNA alone. Environment, education, nutrition, cultural context, even biological randomness play a decisive role. Yet, these companies’ marketing risks turning probabilities into perceived certainties.

And this is where the issue stops being technological and becomes cultural. The ability to choose an embryo according to pre-established criteria introduces a human design logic : what was previously mysterious, unpredictable, and natural is now presented as a modifiable option. The language is that of optimization, but the social effects are anything but neutral.

Because if biology becomes a premium service, the result is inevitable: a new form of inequality. Those who can afford genetic selection will optimize their children’s futures. Those who can’t will remain bound by natural probabilities. We are silently creating a genetic aristocracy.

But the most delicate point isn’t about science: it’s about the very idea of humanity. If a child’s origin becomes a deliberate choice, what happens to the perception of identity? What remains of the value of error, of the unexpected, of diversity—the diversity that allowed our species to evolve? Pursuing the “best child” ultimately means trying to eliminate the randomness that made us human.

The future isn’t a distant threat. It’s already on sale . We’re not imagining a world where life is treated like a custom project: we’re already in it . For $9,999, you can buy the promise of an “optimized” child, presented as an ideal genetic profile.

It is the exact moment when the mystery of birth ceases to be a natural event and begins to transform—for those who can afford it—into a design exercise.