Kiddie Gene Testing in China
China has a longstanding reputation for identifying children’s talents at an early age in order to focus their training for future productivity. For example, China has over 300 government-funded academies that recruit children as young as five in order to prepare them for Olympic stardom. And there are rumors of eugenic breeding as well. For example, many have speculated that NBA superstar Yao Ming is the product of an arranged marriage between two talented Chinese athletes in an effort to create the next great star. Yao, however, denies these claims.
But China may be taking this effort to new levels. CNN recently reported that a new program is starting at the Chongqing Children’s Palace where parents can send their child to a five-day camp to have their DNA tested to identify their gifts and talents. About 30 children between the ages of 3 and 12 are having saliva samples examined to pull out information about their emotions, intelligence, athletic ability, and other traits.
Camp-goers are also observed and evaluated in various settings, such as playing certain sports. These observations, along with the genetic information, are used to tell parents which activities their children should focus on. The camp’s director, Zhao Mingyou, offers an eerie justification for the program: “Nowadays, competition in the world is about who has the most talent. We can give Chinese children an effective, scientific plan at an early age.”
It would be easy to suggest that objectifying children in this manner and manipulating their futures is a predictable yet unfortunate result of genetic technologies falling into communist hands. But to dismiss this growing practice as a function of a particular political ideology obscures the extent to which the growth of genetic technologies within democratic and free market societies can lead to similar results.
For example, Boulder, Colorado-based Atlas Sports Genetics offers parents a $149 genetic test that claims to predict toddlers’ natural athletic ability and the sports in which they will excel. As one parent of a 2 ½-year-old told the New York Times, “I could see how some people might think the test would pigeonhole your child into doing fewer sports or being exposed to fewer things, but I still think it’s good to match them with the right activity. I think it would prevent a lot of parental frustration.”
What does this all mean for children’s health and well-being? Today’s screening for athleticism might seem rather frivolous, especially given its limitations. But what happens when screening mechanisms for traits such as intelligence become more sophisticated? And if it becomes routine to screen toddlers for their genetic talents, are we that far away from the widespread use of assisted reproductive technologies to create children from scratch?