Would you pay for a smarter baby? Parents who have wrestled their kids through homework may be asking, “How much would it cost?” However, the opening question doesn’t address whether Timmy can understand his math homework or if Sally is understanding science. This question is all about getting a smarter baby.
Ken Ham, director/president of Answers In Genesis writes in his blog on August 27, 2026, “That’s the question an article in The Economist is asking as it highlights boutique IVF clinics, part of a “burgeoning industry aspir[ing] to reshape the way humans are made” by allowing parents to screen their embryos for IQ, height, and eye color.
“These start-ups are front and center in the commodification of children, turning human beings into products so wealthy parents can—according to their advertising on the New York subway—“have [their] best baby.”
“Of course, this kind of specialized screening is out of reach (thankfully!) for most couples using IVF, as the screening currently costs up to $50,000. But these start-ups believe that AI and other technological advancements will soon make it more affordable. And if that’s the case, parents are going to use it. The article notes, “demand for such tests could be substantial…”
“These tests are just the next step in the commodification of children. Listen to how the men and women behind these start-ups talk about these services (keep in mind these are babies—real human beings made in God’s image—they are talking about):
“Late last year New Yorkers noticed a series of strange advertisements on the subway. “Have your best baby,” one promised. “IQ is 50% genetic,” noted another. Predictably, they stirred controversy. Yet Kian Sadeghi of Nucleus, the embryo-screening startup behind them, was pleased. “This is a mass-market product. What’s a better way of showing that it’s a mass-market product than the subway?”1
Do you find this concept to be horrifying? These are high-priced Hitlers cornering the market for creating what they envision as a superior human race. One parent who used this technology said, “Most of my professional career I’ve been a product manager in tech, and so in some ways this is just like another product to manage,” he says. . . . “All I could do is look at the results for my six embryos and say: ‘Okay, it kind of seems like this one is better.’”2
To view a baby as a “product,” as if he/she just rolled off the assembly line out of Detroit or from a lab in the Silicon Valley is reprehensible. And it certainly sounds contrary to God’s plan for advancing the human race.
The first couple in the Bible is Adam and Eve. They were given some instructions in Genesis 1:28. “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” Let something interesting capture your thoughts for a moment. Adam and Even weren’t given any lessons about sex. No sex-ed class. No instruction manual. No counselor. The knowledge of what to do was placed within them by their Creator.
Now, let me be as discreet and cautious with my next thought. We understand the biology and anatomy of reproduction. But just because the function is correct, it doesn’t guarantee offspring. We must always remember that that which is created in the womb is made by God and it is by HIS design and choice whether to bless a family with children or not.
Psalms 139:13-17 says, “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb. (14) I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. (15) My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. (16) Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. (17) How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!”
Why does the Lord choose to fill the quivers (Psalm 127:5) of some families and keep the others sparsely populated or completely empty? I have no answers to that question. All I 
can assert is that God has His reasons and He makes no mistakes.
For those wanting their “designer babies” and feeling that they should pick and choose the attributes of that baby, let us never forget something vitally significant. That which was made in the womb was created in the image of God. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” (Genesis 1:27) The baby was not to be created in man’s image or imagination of what makes for the perfect, smarter baby.
“Children are not commodities or products to be genetically manipulated according to adult desires. Children are people, made in the image of God with inherent dignity and value right from fertilization.”3
Proverbs 31:9 Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.
1https://answersingenesis.org/sanctity-of-life/woud-you-pay-smarter-baby/?utm_term=20260829&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9SYjSvOa3EjowUKymG6e0M3HDMwfdWax_OXN3qlsYvXk4MkFF9vRBPqHIcypT_rfXBmPevQ9ps4arNC2PvyE7B3u6g&_hsmi=435635989&utm_content=2-banner-cta&utm_source=articlesmedia
2Ibid.
3Ibid.
Images are taken from https://pixabay.com/, https://www.pexels.com/, or https://unsplash.com/images or created in Windows Copilot. According to the websites, they are Royalty Free and free to be used for our purposes.
