In vitro fertilization has exploded in popularity despite concerns about the commodification of human life. IVF typically involves retrieving eggs from a woman’s ovaries, fertilizing the eggs with sperm, and inserting the resulting embryo into her uterus. Every year, about 2% of American babies are born from this technology.

The New York Times recently ran a piece about embryo screening, a common step in the IVF process, posing the question, “Should human life be optimized?”

Preimplantation genetic testing allows parents to screen embryos for health conditions that have known genetic correlates, including autism, schizophrenia, obesity, and cancer. Proponents will argue that this process prevents a child from sickness and suffering and lessens the likelihood that unwanted health problems will be passed on to future generations.

But this also enables individuals to select an embryo according to cosmetic preferences such as height, sex, eye color, and personality traits. For example, two of the female babies featured in the article were reportedly chosen, as embryos, by their mothers for their sex. (Imagine........

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