The Center for Genetics and Society brings social justice and human rights to the center of public and policy discussions about human genetics and assisted reproduction.

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These companies help parents try to pick their babies' traits. Experts are wary

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.06.2026

Aggregated News

Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.

"These are saliva samples as well as blood," says Schleede, a geneticist who runs Herasight Inc.'s lab in Morrisville, N.C. "We also...

Genetic Selection

Faster, Higher, Stronger? The Enhanced Games Fall Flat

By Pete Shanks | 06.04.2026
Biopolitical Times

Faster, Higher, Stronger was the Olympic motto from 1874 until 2001, when “ – Together” was added, to stress the “moral and educational perspective” of the Games. The folks who paid for or participated in the Enhanced Games – the name itself a nod to the Olympics – held in Las Vegas on Sunday, May 24, apparently use a different edit: 

Faster, Higher, Stronger with Chemistry

High-level sport draws huge crowds. Coming very soon, the soccer World Cup, featuring...

Human Genetic Modification

The start-ups dreaming of creating genetically modified babies

By Alexandre Piquard, Le Monde [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.22.2026

Aggregated News

"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of...

U.S. Federal

The Measured Listener

By Daniel Shanahan, Los Angeles Review of Books | 05.31.2026

Aggregated News

This is the 15th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring...

U.S. States

Biopolitical Times

Book Review: How to Rule the World

By Pete Shanks | 07.10.2026

The title of this book is clever, not least because it is borrowed from a very secret society of a...

Patents & Other IP

Faster, Higher, Stronger? The Enhanced Games Fall Flat

By Pete Shanks | 06.04.2026

Faster, Higher, Stronger was the Olympic motto from 1874 until 2001, when “ – Together” was added, to stress...

Human Genetic Modification

‘I didn’t come here to get rich’: new research on the lives of Ukrainian women in Georgia’s surrogacy boom

By Olga Oleinikova, Medea Badashvili, and Polina Vlasenko | 04.23.2026

“I didn’t come here to get rich. I came because I had no other way to keep my son safe...

Other Countries

News

The Genes That Could Cancel Out a Fatal Diagnosis

By Roxanne Khamsi, The Atlantic | 07.07.2026

When Ludivine Verboogen and Romain Alderweireldt’s third child was born in Belgium in late 2015, they marveled at his long fingers. Perhaps one day he will be a famous pianist, they thought. But soon Ludivine grew worried that her son...

Genetic Selection

Palantir Has a Hand in NIH’s Most Ambitious Health Initiative

By Julia Métraux, Mother Jones [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 07.07.2026

During his 2015 State of the Union address, then-President Barack Obama announced what he promised would be an ambitious public health project. “Tonight, I’m launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes...

U.S. Federal

Key findings of the 'Fertility, Embryo Research and Genome Editing' report

By Sarah Norcross, Sandy Starr, Amanda Cooney, and Anneliese Burton, BioNews | 07.06.2026

Our report Fertility, Embryo Research and Genome Editing: Public Attitudes in Europe explores public attitudes to fertility treatment, embryo research, genome editing, donor conception, surrogacy and related topics in four European countries – the UK, the Netherlands, ...

Genetic Selection

The Guardian view on gene-edited humans: darker uses must be acknowledged alongside medical ones

By Editorial Staff, The Guardian | 07.05.2026

Ever since Crispr-Cas9 gene-editing technology emerged in the early 2010s, ethical questions around genetically altered humans, so-called designer babies, have become increasingly urgent. There is already a worldwide legal prohibition. No country currently allows human germline editing (meaning genetic changes...

Human Genetic Modification

Video
Reproduction and Family Formation: The State and the Market
Use Gene Editing to Make Better Babies | Debate | Intelligence Squared U.S.
The 'Perfect' Baby?: The Dangers of Gene Editing in Assisted Reproduction