Walk me through your personal decision to do that—to make use of Orchid’s technology on yourself.
I mean, I began the corporate because I desired to test my very own embryos.
Because of your mom, or due to who you might be as an individual?
Both. Reproduction is some of the fundamental things in life. It’s such as you die, taxes, and, you already know, people have kids.
You all the time knew you desired to have kids.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
How old were you whenever you were like, “I should find a way to sequence my embryos”?
I don’t think it was sequence my embryos specifically. I’ve all the time had an interest in genetics. I’ve all the time had an interest in fertility and reproductive tech.
Even as, like, a teen?
I remember certainly one of my applications for the Thiel Fellowship definitely had a version of Orchid on there.
That was, what, over a decade ago, and plenty of prospective parents still depend on the identical genetic testing we used back then.
I might consider it negligent to make use of the old technology. Because you’re by definition missing tons of of things that would have been detected. Parents who should not told that this latest technology exists are being done an enormous disservice and can probably be suing if their child finally ends up with a condition.
You think that’s a legitimate lawsuit?
Of course. If your doctor doesn’t inform you that there’s a way so that you can screen in your child to not have a condition that will be either life-threatening or life-altering for them—I mean, it’s already happened. [Parents have been suing physicians for failing to perform genetic tests since the late 1980s.]
How much does an Orchid screening cost?
It’s $2,500 per embryo.
And presumably you’d be screening several embryos. What about for families that may’t afford that?
We have a philanthropic program, so people can apply to that, and we’re excited to just accept as many cases as we are able to.
Your clientele, in the mean time, must tend toward well-off optimizers—individuals who really fuss about numbers.
I assume you’re right. I mean, I don’t know.
Do you ever worry about that? Giving people, like, more things to fret about?
No, no, no. I feel it’s the alternative. For the overwhelming majority of our patients, it reduces worry.
There have to be exceptions.
There are some individuals who, I agree, are sort of anxious. And I just don’t think they need to do any genetic testing.
Oh yeah?
I mean, everyone’s different. It’s just that I would like to expand the menu of selection. You get to decide on your partner. You get to decide on when and if you have got kids. This is, like, that is your kid. Why would you censor details about that?
But this still makes plenty of people extremely uncomfortable. There’s a fear, so often, around anything that touches reproduction. Are we, I don’t know, afraid of playing God or something?
Every other time we examine something, we develop—we develop insulin, right? We’re like, “That’s great!” It’s not such as you’re playing God there. But you truly are, right? You’re creating something that didn’t exist before.
