As far back as I can remember, my mother punctuated conversations by bringing up women’s genetic inferiority to men. On cuisine, she’d say great chefs were always male, because women “didn’t have the genes to be great.” When I majored in English, my mother argued that there were no female Shakespeares, as “only men had the genes to be a genius.” This genetic principle applied in music, science, art.

My mother came from the first generation to learn about DNA, a molecule the structure of which was discovered in 1953—by scientists who ironically managed to leave out the contributions of a woman, Rosalind Franklin. My mother died soon after the 2012 development of CRISPR, a tool used for genetic editing, including germline editing, which makes changes heritable.

CRISPR uses an RNA—a nucleic acid—as a guide along with an enzyme to snip at the genes, as if with molecular scissors. It could alter the genes in almost any way imaginable. I wonder what my mother would have thought of this technology, back when she had her children—my brother and my genetically challenged self.

We have now, in the United States, legal genetic selection. This happens through embryo evaluation services that, for steep prices, will provide a genetic “profile” of embryos that parents create through in vitro fertilization (IVF). Parents then select which to implant.

One such service, Nucleus Genomics, advertises with the tagline “Have Your Best Baby” and the URL pickyourbaby.com. These profiles include traits like height, eye color, and intelligence, in addition to the potential for specific diseases.

And they include mental “disorders" (not........

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