Editing embryos to spare kids from inherited disease. It is still illegal.

Origin Genomics told NPR on 29 September 2026 it wants safety data so Congress will let FDA consider editing disease mutations in human embryos. Creating a pregnancy from an edited embryo is still illegal in the US.

What changed

Cathy Tie showed NPR frozen donated embryos and cells carrying breast-cancer risk mutations. Editors go into those cells first. This is research, not a clinic selling edited babies. Preventive in San Francisco is in the same lane.

Family case

Nicole and Asaf Ezra donated three affected embryos. Nicole has familial adenomatous polyposis. IVF plus PGT-M already tries to pick embryos without the mutation. Editing would try to repair the rest.

Competing views

Robin Lovell-Badge says the company is rushing and giving false hope. Base-editing papers this month still show unpredictable extra edits. Katie Hasson warns of designer-baby incentives. Fyodor Urnov calls it embryo improvement. R. Alta Charo flags editing tourism. He Jiankui is not involved, Tie says.

Watch next

The FDA rider in Congress. Published off-target data. Whether PGT-M already covers the medical need. Not medical advice. Ask a genetic counselor about PGT-M today. Source: NPR / Rob Stein, 29 September 2026.