All right, Mr. and Mrs. Sand Dollar.
All right.
It's time to do the fertilization.
Talking to you, guys.
Oh, yes.
That's the way, kids.
Sperm are around the egg, and they're taking a meeting.
Deciding who's gonna go first.
It's amazing what it'll do for a dollar.
Anyway, the sperm is now attempting to fertilize the egg.
Once they're fertilized,
we'll know because we'll see the envelope start to form,
which blocks the other sperm from penetrating the egg.
Then, in a few days,
we can test the DNA for each sand dollar embryo
and find out if they're healthy.
This is just the latest tool available in sand dollar family planning.
But it looks like...
Yes, yes. It looks like your little Penny is on her way.
Sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Sand Dollar.
Say goodbye to those carefree nights at the old Sand Dollar Club.
Hello. Hello, everyone.
I'm Bill Nye, and I'm here to save the world.
A moment ago, you saw me help make proud parents of Mr. and Mrs. Sand Dollar.
Or, for our international viewers, Mr. and Mrs. Sand Euro.
Or Sand Yen.
Now, why did I do that?
For starters, everyone needs a hobby.
But there's also a larger point.
You may have noticed I fertilized those eggs outside the womb
because sand dollars don't have wombs.
We're at a point now where we can do the same for humans.
We've been doing it since the late 1970s.
And this technology can help people who couldn't otherwise have kids,
have kids.
It's called in vitro fertilization or IVF.
In some cases, doctors have added a step.
They take fertilized eggs and let them divide a few times,
then they take a cell sample and screen its genes.
They can let would-be parents know which of those cell clusters
is most likely to be free of certain genetic diseases,
which could lead to healthier children.
Now, you might be thinking, "Is Bill talking about designer babies?"
Yeah. Yes. Yes, I am.
I know it sounds creepy.
Even the phrase is creepy,
like I'm talking about a Gucci handbag or something, not a person.
But, hold on. Before you start picturing
an army of genetically identical baby Bills in tiny bow ties and lab coats...
which doesn't sound that bad... let me explain.
First off, "designer baby" is a messy, catch-all term.
To some, it means picking sperm or egg donors with certain traits.
For others, it's a child born with genetic material from three parents
to help avoid a serious disorder.
The kind I explained earlier is called preimplantation genetic diagnosis or PGD.
And here's how it works:
Until recently, when parents had a child,
they couldn't know what they'd get, genetically speaking.
It's like this egg.
You don't know what's inside.
Not until it hatches.
But thanks to advances in our understanding of genetics,
parents can now know more about the genes they might pass on.
Let's say two parents wanna have a baby,
but they have a family history of certain genetic disorders.
Doctors can collect eggs and sperm from the appropriate people,
fertilize several eggs outside the womb,
then the doctors can screen for certain disorders
like Tay-Sachs or cystic fibrosis.
In the end, parents can decide how to proceed.
We can look at the genes before we re-implant the eggs.
And you can know whether or not you have an undesirable set of genes
or maybe a desirable set of genes.
We can't screen for all genetic risks,
and we can't use it to dream up something completely new, like...
like this beautiful egg.
That could change, though. Scientists are developing new technologies
that may allow us to edit genes, the blueprint of life.
But should we?
Would we be playing God, or Darwin, or Alfred Russel Wallace?
He's an important figure in the history of evolution, people. Look it up.
As I was saying, we could use gene editing
to perhaps eliminate all kinds of diseases.
Some worry it would be a first step
toward a future where the rich can pay to have smarter, faster, stronger kids.
In the popular vernacular, we call this a slippery slope.
But just because there is a slippery slope,
that doesn't mean that that slope must be slid.
Luckily, we don't have to decide how to proceed just yet.
We still don't have the ability to edit genes in humans safely.
Plus, many people think it's an inherently bad idea.
It's worth seriously pondering, though,
before the technology is here and we're caught off-guard.
To get us thinking,
we sent our correspondent Karlie Kloss to an IVF clinic.
Watch. Watch this.
Childbirth may be miraculous,
but reproductive science is also creating miracles
for people who have trouble conceiving healthy babies naturally.
More couples struggle with fertility than many people realize.
A lot of couples really struggle with fertility.
We tried to start working on a family about two years ago,
and we got pregnant and then had a miscarriage.
- And at that point, we were... - It was pretty devastating.
You know, we thought, okay, after all this time, we got it.
- Yeah. - So, we had to go through that process
- and grieve. - Yeah.
And, um...
We began to be open to, like, what are some possibilities?
Right.
American fertility specialist Dr. Aykut Bayrak is the medical director
at a Los Angeles-based IVF clinic that does genetic screening of embryos.
The genetic testing and chromosome analysis have advanced so dramatically
that it has really become an essential part of our practice.
And not only the technology has really advanced,
but also the kind of acceptance of it.
Testing the embryos genetically is not a part of routine IVF.
Routine IVF is obtaining embryos,
and, based on their appearance, we grade them.
Unfortunately, looks can be deceiving.
So, you have an embryo that has developed
to the final stages simply perfectly,
but you test that embryo chromosomally, and it just comes back simply abnormal.
So, you can see all 46 chromosomes and see if there are any abnormalities.
Is there more that you can tell about the embryo?
We're able to screen for other chromosome issues
that would result in either implantation failure
- or a miscarriage. - Okay.
This cutting-edge analysis has been especially helpful
to couples like Sunny and Chris.
In Sunny's case,
only one embryo out of four came back chromosomally normal.
So, if we had just looked at the embryos and simply transferred them,
easily, I could have transferred embryo number four here,
which either would not have implanted or have resulted in a miscarriage.
It's an incredible technology that's able to help a lot of people
who wouldn't be able to conceive a healthy child.
So, what you do is really extraordinary.
Here in the 21st century, science can empower parents with choices,
giving them more control over their own family's destiny.
- Yes, honey. Yes. - B-b-b-baby.
- I think you pass her. - Give me.
Give me, give me, give me.
It's just amazing. Whichever way you look at it,
it's a miracle that this actually happened.
Wow, yes.
- This is really something. - Yeah.
- Really great. - It's incredible, Bill.
IVF technology is about 40 years old. Do you remember back in 1978?
I do remember. It was a big deal.
- The first baby, Louise Joy Brown. - Joy Brown, yes.
So, she was... She's fine.
She's 38 years old, and she's just living her life, right?
She's happy and healthy. But there's so much that...
They've come a long way,
but there's still so much that we don't understand.
And the way Dr. Bayrak explained it to me, you know, we understand the human genome,
and it's like a map.
And we understand the highways, but there's all these little side streets
that we don't understand what those control.
And it's gotta be a combination of genes, not just a sequence.
It's gotta be the interaction of things along the sequence.
It's gotta be fantastically complicated.
But wouldn't it be great if people can have healthier babies by not having...?
By avoiding problems, genetic problems. It would just be a fantastic thing.
Well, one thing, though, Bill, is that this treatment is really expensive.
- I was gonna ask you. - It's... It's an amazing...
- It's like buying another car or two. - Or more.
Each treatment costs about 10 to 20,000 dollars.
- And a lot of times... - And that's a risk.
Right? It's a bet you're placing.
It's a risk because you oftentimes have to do multiple treatments
to have a healthy pregnancy, and...
oftentimes, insurance doesn't cover it.
It's hard on the woman, right?
It can be hard. So, you basically go through a process
of ten days of taking hormone shots.
And after that, the doctor, Dr. Bayrak, removes eggs, and...
I saw the lab where all of this happens.
- They take the eggs and they... - The eggs are microscopic.
- They're single cells. - Microscopic.
But then there's this genetic screening that can be done.
So, Sunny and Chris had to choose if they wanted to do the genetic screening
before they even went through this whole process.
- Which costs more money. - It costs more money.
But what it does is that they could tell,
once the eggs were fertilized, which ones were gonna be healthy.
That's cool. Way to go. Thank you, Karlie.
- Thanks, Bill. - Karlie Kloss.
You know what? I need a minute.
Tell 'em how you really feel, Bill.
My family is affected by a genetic disorder
which we call ataxia.
Ataxy is a broad term. It means you can't walk, ataxy.
And so, as people get older, their... Our cerebellums are affected
and people walk, losing their balance, as though they're drunk.
Their fine motor skills degrade.
Their ability to articulate certain consonants falls down.
And so, for example, my older sister, who is older and will always be older...
she, most of the time, uses a walker, and we have railings in her house.
And this... We are in a longitudinal study.
And for those of you who are not familiar with the term,
"longitudinal" is doctor talk for a lot of years, over many years.
We go to the Kennedy Krieger Institute at Johns Hopkins
in Baltimore, Maryland, here in the United States.
They draw her blood.
You get on a treadmill where your feet go different speeds.
There's this machine that jerks you around and watches where your eyes are looking.
It's extraordinary, and it's still not understood.
It apparently is a combination of genes.
And believe me, my brother and sister, between them, they have seven kids.
Don't look at me.
They had seven kids, and they are having kids.
And everybody wonders if those kids
and the kids of those kids are gonna have this ataxia develop,
because, once in a while, it skips generations.
And so, everybody who's involved would love to know,
they would love to know,
whether or not the fertilized eggs are gonna be affected by ataxia.
And it's just a long-term thing. It's a classic evolutionary problem.
Evolution, in a sense, doesn't care whether or not you have ataxia.
You have a kid. You're old enough, you become infirm.
Evolution doesn't care because you've moved on.
Your kids are grown up.
But now we want everybody in society to pay taxes and be productive,
and, of course, have a high quality of life.
So, we are right on the cusp, everyone,
of being able to sort this sort of thing out.
We want everybody to have the chance to make good choices.
It's an exciting time and an important time.
And to discuss this, to help me sort all this out,
we have, once again, an extraordinary panel of experts.
Please, welcome Dr. Leslie Hinkson,
professor of Sociology, Georgetown University.
Paul Knoepfler, professor and stem cell researcher
at University of California-Davis.
You wrote a book,
The Life-Changing Science of Designer Babies.
And Camille Hammond, co-founder of the Cade Foundation,
who provides grants for families struggling with infertility.
So, uh, Paul, what else...?
Just looking at the title of your book, what else is possible with this?
There's a lot possible.
I think we've been talking a lot about selecting embryos,
but now the big thing is actually changing them.
That's what science is really excited about right now.
And there's a new tool called CRISPR-Cas9. It's kind of like...
Can I just ask what CRISPR is an acronym for?
Let's see if I can get it.
It's clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.
- Palindromic repeats. - Yeah.
I'm amazed I remember that, yeah.
So, this is where you edit genes, right?
Right. It's like a Swiss Army knife for the genome.
It's got a little magnifying glass to find the right spot,
a scissors to cut the gene right there,
and a pencil to rewrite the A's, the C's, the G's, the T's to be different.
And the idea is that would be better.
- Adenine, cytosine, guanine, and thymine. - Thymine.
- Yeah. - Yeah, and so...
Very exciting. We're doing this in my lab in a dish with stem cells.
We can change their genes, we can change their behavior.
But some people are talking about doing this with human embryos,
which is a whole other ball of wax.
Well, I think the way that it stands now
is that if that ever becomes a possibility,
that's gonna be a possibility for the wealthy.
So, you talk about stratification.
I mean, we already have extreme wealth disparities in this country.
- I think what we... - Not just in the U.S.
- All over the world. - Yeah, well...
But even just within this country alone, I mean, who can afford this technology?
And these are individuals and families
who already have all of the best at their disposal
in terms of what kind of education can you get,
what kind of jobs do you then have access to,
how much wealth do you have at your disposal,
what can you give to your kids.
And then, if you can also then say:
"You know what? Yet another leg up I'm gonna give to my kid
is I'm gonna go in there and I'm gonna edit."
- Yeah. Oh, yeah. - "I'm gonna edit you out..."
But people love choices, right?
And if you can make a genetic choice with CRISPR,
it could be attractive, right?
I have not had that experience.
I work with regular people, regular, middle-income families
through my work at the Cade Foundation.
I don't see people coming in with these demands,
with these expectations of a baby that is, as you said, left-handed,
with a certain eye color.
He could be a relief pitcher in the Major Leagues,
and then he'd be really rich and you wouldn't have to work anymore.
Well, the families that I work with really just want a baby.
They would love a healthy baby, but really, many of them have struggled
for many, many years to conceive, have had lots of heartbreak,
and they just wanna bring a baby home.
And frankly, many of them are barely scraping the money up
to pay for an IVF cycle.
So, some of this technology, which is very expensive,
- is just not gonna be accessible. - How much does this cost?
Just an IVF cycle can be about $12,000 for medical treatment,
but then medications can also cost another $5,000.
And that's assuming that you don't need an egg donor,
because that's gonna add another ten to 20,000 dollars.
So, is there gonna be an intermediate step where people can afford the IVF
but can't afford the screening?
I think we're at that intermediate step right now.
What about selecting for...? To avoid disabilities?
Is that a real thing? It's a real thing, right?
- Yeah... - Well, I don't know...
Sorry. I don't know that we know enough,
in many cases, to know the gene that goes with the disability, right?
- So, we can't necessarily... - In my case, we don't.
In the case of ataxia, we don't.
Right, and so same kind of deal. If we don't know the gene, we can't...
Thinking ahead to the futuristic stuff, the CRISPR stuff.
We can't correct it if we don't know what it is.
We also don't know if we would correct the right gene
or end up correcting a different gene and screwing that gene up.
So, I think we have to be really careful about what it is...
Especially as CRISPR technology gets more advanced.
What are we going to actually start thinking needs to be corrected for?
That's what I'm saying. What risks do you take?
And, you know, for me, uh...
the most important idea in life science is evolution.
And I claim... that what you feel is a result of evolution.
Our brains are set up as a result of millennia of selection.
And so, how we feel about this, I think, is something we're gonna have
to spend time teasing out 'cause it's in there.
Thank you all very much.
- This has been fascinating. - Thank you.
A hand for my panel.
Now, for my family, this business is a health issue.
For other families, it's a personality issue.
Just ask Nazeem Hussain.
As scientists develop ways for people to choose
which traits their babies inherit,
parents face a tough question.
How do you decide which parents' traits you actually want?
If you could design your own baby, which traits would you like to pass on?
Um...
- Drive. - Brown eyes.
My personality, your looks.
- Yeah? Yeah. - Yeah.
Creativity.
Smart genes.
I'll be quite happy if it had all...
- All of my traits. - Oh, great.
My intelligence, his creativity.
- Why not his intelligence? - He's not intelligent.
- You're not very smart? - No.
- Her personality, my looks. - You'll go with that?
- I'll go with that. - Blond hair.
Blond hair, blue eyes. White skin?
German?
- Well... - Like an Aryan baby.
Strong right-wing political views?
- No. - Oh, no.
- You don't want a Nazi baby? - No.
Okay, what of your traits would you not wanna pass on?
Yeah, I'd say the allergies.
- My nose. - Would you agree with that?
- I guess so, yeah. - What don't you like about his nose?
Is there one trait your partner has
that if it was passed on to your baby, you'd love your baby a little less?
Ooh.
Sometimes he can be indecisive.
- Do you walk all over him? - I just pound him a little.
Yeah, it can take him forever to make a decision.
- Does that really get to you? - Not really.
- I end up making the decision anyway. - Yeah, yeah.
- I wouldn't call it argumentative. - Yeah.
- I'd probably say... - Dominant.
- Diplomatic. - Diplomatic?
- Yes. - You consider that diplomatic?
Dominant sounds better, I think.
- But... - Yeah.
If you could choose a superpower for your baby, what would it be?
- A shape-shifter. - A shape-shifter?
What would you want it to shape-shift into?
Chairs?
- Who's Chaz? - Chaz?
I need a chair.
A chair? You want your baby to shape-shift into a chair?
- Just anything. - So you can sit on your baby.
Why'd you come up with chair?
'Cause sometimes you're out and about and need a chair?
You wish you could throw your baby on the floor, it becomes a chair,
- and you can sit on your baby? - That'd be handy.
That's great parenting.
Okay, can you look into the camera and tell your future baby
some of the ways you hope he or she doesn't disappoint you?
Um... I hope that you don't think, in life, that it's all about image
that will get you far.
- And... - Just be true to yourself.
And confident all throughout life.
- It's not about money and body image. - It's about who you know.
- Yeah. - Be friends with the rich kids.
No.
When it comes to designer babies, science can introduce a lot of solutions,
but it looks like it could cause a lot of problems, too.
Am I right? Yeah.
Nazeem... that was very cool.
You talked to a lot of people, right?
The thing they didn't want their kids to do, was it mostly...
mental, like their attitude,
or was it certain physical traits?
When I first spoke to people about "designing" their own babies,
they were like, "No, I don't wanna design my baby."
But when you started asking specific questions like:
"Would you prefer black hair or blond?" they said, "Definitely blond hair."
Or "Black skin or white skin?" they'd say, "Oh, white skin."
Well, if they were white.
If they were black, I had no one tell me they preferred white skin.
But, you know, it was...
- Not on camera, anyway. - So, people are...
Just seriously, what I get from that piece is really heartwarming.
People are generally happy with themselves. Generally.
Yeah, they're pretty happy with themselves, but, I think...
What's surprising was kind of how comfortable they were
"designing" their own baby.
It got more and more specific the more you prodded.
And, uh, you know, the other thing that's surprising
was how comfortable they got with each other.
Pointing out their partners' character flaws
and saying, "I don't wanna pass that on to my kids."
- Was it character or physical flaws? - Character and physical.
One of them called his wife dominant.
Like, if I called my wife dominant on camera...
Could be career-ending, as we say.
She'd lock me in the house and never let me leave.
Like, that would be the end of everything.
But I think when you're talking about your hypothetical, theoretical baby,
people can just dream.
You know, they can pick and choose. It's like they're going shopping online.
While you're shopping online, what would you want passed on?
- From me? Um... - Yeah.
Yeah, probably not my chronic lateness.
Late? You're always late?
- I'm always late. - I'm not sure that's genetic.
- Oh, no? - Could be.
Like, if I was to choose something that I wouldn't wanna pass on,
I wouldn't wanna pass on my ankles. I've got really skinny ankles.
Like, they're Sri Lankan ankles. Have you got skinny ankles?
Can I show my ankles?
- Everybody would love to see your ankles. - These are super skinny ankles.
- You know what? Maybe not, based on that... - Are my ankles skinny?
They're sort of standard issue.
- Well, let's have a... - Yeah.
I'm very attached to them.
Okay, if someone throws a tennis ball... This was really disrespectful.
- I've come on your show and I'm like... - I think it's great. No, no.
Also, I would not pass on my
"living at home when I'm 28 with my mom" gene.
I think that's something that's...
- Wow. Look at the time. - ...just not helpful.
But it is really an extraordinary time where people can make these decisions.
These decisions that really, for me, come from science fiction.
- It's just an important time. - Would you design your baby?
- If you could design a baby? - Well, I would like... I would love for...
In my case, really, I'd love to know whether or not the kid's gonna get ataxia.
- That would be a cool thing. - Would you pick their hair color?
No. No. The other thing, I just tell you,
- I have very strong bunions. - Right, right.
My toes go this way. I'd like to get rid of that.
Is that what you get when you wear high heels?
I don't wear high heels that much.
Apparently, it's something that,
the sports medicine guy said, this came with.
- "This is the hand you're dealt." - Someone told me, when I was in London,
that sticking your tongue out and touching your nose,
- that's a genetic thing. - Yeah.
I can't do it, but I would wanna pass that on to my kids.
'Cause, man, that is awesome at parties in primary school.
- That is so cool. - Would you want your kid to do that?
- I gotta say, for me, that's lower down... - Yeah.
...on the clipboard.
- Thank you very much, Nazeem. - Thank you.
This is a very cool piece. Thank you.
Wow, check this out. What happened here, people? This is crazy.
Seems to me that people have mixed feelings
about the idea of designer babies.
But maybe there's a way to show how this technology actually helps people.
And here to help me is our guest, Tim Gunn from Project Runway.
Bill.
It's my fault.
- It's my fault. - You look very sharp.
- As do you. - Oh, this?
You did this? You set this up?
Guilty. I heard you were doing a show about designer babies,
and I decided to redecorate. I hope you don't mind.
Um... Oh. No. Not at all. It looks fabulous.
Well, designers are kind of my thing.
Yeah.
But don't worry.
I know you're talking about doctors selecting out genetic disorders
and not a new spring line of babies with red bottoms.
That does sound cute, though.
Come on. It's time to start the show.
Yes, let's start the show.
It's... It's like Fashion Week.
Except for science.
Sure, it's exactly like that, I have to say.
Well, are you ready for our first family?
Well, let's welcome the Kriegs.
After four years of trying for a baby with no success,
Sarah and Dan turned to IVF with genetic screening.
Out of eight fertilized eggs only two were viable,
but that was enough for Sarah to finally get pregnant.
Meet the very dapper Lloyd.
Dapper indeed.
Here we have the Cancinos family.
Shelby and Deshawn got the call on Valentine's Day
that they were pregnant with little Remi.
Polycystic ovarian syndrome runs in Shelby's family,
which is why they turned to IVF.
They also screened for a variety of genetic disorders.
Work that hair, Remi.
Next, welcome the Sroka-Grove family to the stage.
Mothers Emily and Ash have three stunning kids.
Bodhi, Archer, and Xyla.
They were conceived using IVF and other reproductive techniques
with the help of a donor.
Tim, you really make the term "designer babies" work.
See what I did there?
- "Make it work," see? - No.
Yes. Thanks to all our families, and thanks to Tim Gunn.
Now, go out there and save the world.
Save the world, Bill.