TL;DR
The "designer baby" is arriving through the side door. Nobody is allowed to edit an embryo's genes and start a pregnancy, anywhere in the world. But parents going through IVF can already pay companies to rank their embryos by genetic predictions for disease risk, eye color, baldness, height, longevity and even IQ, for up to $50,000 on top of IVF, with no government rule in place. Meanwhile the editing science is getting more precise, and a few startups are openly asking Congress to let the FDA consider edited babies. The selection market is here now; the editing market waits on safety and law. What happens next decides whether choosing a child's traits stays a matter of picking among embryos a couple already has, or becomes rewriting them.
Below the line, for paid subscribers: The full story: where it stands, how we got here and what's dated next; our Odds board on 5 milestones, starting with "A U.S. government rule covering embryo scoring for traits by 2028"; and every source.