Biology
Baby DNA Tests, CRISPR and the Future of Designer Babies
NEXT HORIZON — SCIENCE & FUTURE Can We Predict a Baby’s Future From DNA — or Rewrite It? From carrier screening and embryo testing to CRISPR and “designer babies”: what science can really tell us in 2026, what it cannot, and what may come next. “Designer baby” used to be an easy science-fiction phrase. In 2026, it is getting harder to laugh off — not because fertility clinics can build children to order, but because separate pieces of that future now exist in real medicine. Inherited disease risk: minimize Cancer risk: low Eye color: green Hair: dark Height: above average Cognitive potential: high None of those sliders exists. But almost every line on that imaginary screen now points to a real field of research: inherited-disease screening, embryo selection, polygenic prediction, reproductive genetics or genome editing. Depending on the test, prospective parents can be screened across hundreds of genes for ...
9/10/2026 10:49:00 AM