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Choosing Your "Healthiest" Embryo After Dobbs: Polygenic Screening and Distinctive Challenges for Truth in
Dov Fox1, Sonia Suter2, Meghna Mukherjee3
1Herzog Research Professor of Law; Director, Center for Health Law Policy & Bioethics, University of San Diego School of Law.
Harvard Journal of Law & Technology
|September 29, 2025
Summary
Polygenic embryo screening (PES) offers genetic risk scores for embryos, but marketing often exaggerates benefits. This technology may increase decision fatigue for parents and poses legal challenges regarding advertising and consent.
Area of Science:
- Genetics
- Reproductive Technology
- Bioethics
Background:
- Polygenic embryo screening (PES) analyzes numerous genomic loci to assess embryo genetic susceptibility.
- Commercial marketing of PES directly to consumers often emphasizes medical conditions and exaggerated benefits.
- Advertising leverages parental desires for healthy children and reinforces normative ideals of good parenting.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the potential risks of decision fatigue and choice overload associated with PES for prospective parents.
- To explore the legal challenges PES presents concerning truth in advertising and informed consent.
- To analyze how inflated marketing claims for PES may interact with legal and social factors to expand its use.
Main Methods:
- Review of commercial marketing materials for polygenic embryo screening.
- Analysis of legal and ethical implications of PES in the context of reproductive choices.
- Examination of the impact of PES on prospective parental decision-making.
Main Results:
- PES marketing frequently overstates its advantages and efficacy, promoting the idea of selecting the "healthiest" embryo.
- The technology may exacerbate decision fatigue and choice overload among individuals undergoing fertility treatments.
- Post-Roe v. Wade legal landscape may increase reliance on technologies like PES for reproductive agency.
Conclusions:
- Inflated marketing claims for PES, coupled with clinical limitations and societal pressures, could lead to wider adoption.
- PES raises significant concerns regarding informed consent and legal liability for false advertising.
- The technology presents complex ethical and legal challenges in the context of assisted reproductive technologies and reproductive rights.
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