This is the Guardian.

The biggest concern for expectant parents is usually is my baby healthy and today's technology allows them to answer that question in all kinds of ways, including through genetic analysis.

Genetic screening of embryos is not that new, it's not controversial, particularly if you've got a

family history of sickle cell disease or

Huntington's you might want to test the embryos to ensure that you don't pass on those severe

conditions to your future children.

But as a new investigation from the Guardian and campaign group Hope Not Hate has revealed,

a US tech startup might be going far beyond this.

Watching through these under-covert meetings

where they're showing these kind of menus of traits

that parents could select from and optimize, it feels almost like picking a character for a video game.

It just felt so clinical.

Science correspondent Hannah Devlin was given access to undercover video footage

which shows the company Heliospect Genomics offering to help parents select

future children based on genetic predictions of intelligence.

They claim to be able to rank embryos based on traits like IQ, height and risk of mental illness.

This company is also talking about, you know,

they speculate that it could be possible to select for

character traits, personality, other things as well as intelligence.

So today we hear about the investigation into Heliospect Genomics, and the ethical questions it raises about how

far we should peak into the genetics of our offspring. From the Guardian, I'm Madeline Finley and this is Science Weekly.

Hannah Devlin, your're a guardian science correspondent and you've been looking into a company called Heliospect genomics and the services that they're offering to prospective parents.

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