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

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

Serial Entrepreneur and “Frankenstein’s” Ex Launches (Another) New Germline Editing Startup

By Pete Shanks | 03.26.2026

Cathy Tie seems to be good at starting businesses but not so dedicated to maintaining them. CGS, like many others...

Policies

News

'If we were a straight couple...': Understanding LGBTQ+ family-building experiences in the UK

By Jennifer Takhar, Carolyn Wilson-Nash, and Chloe He, BioNews | 06.22.2026

Imagine wanting to have a child and discovering, at every stage, that the system was not designed with you in mind. This is the reality for many LGBTQ+ people in the UK who seek fertility treatment each year.

Our study...

Other Countries

Why the Human Genome’s Tangled Physicality May Confound AI

By Philip Ball, Quanta Magazine | 06.18.2026

Since its molecular structure was deduced in the 1950s, DNA has been hailed by many biologists as the secret of life. They’ve read and studied the information stored in the DNA found in the cells of living organisms, known as...

Genetic Selection

These ‘master’ proteins protect us from deadly mutations — and could inspire new drugs

By Philip Ball , Nature | 06.17.2026

Our genomes are full of mutations that have the potential to damage our health or even kill us. Yet most of them rarely cause problems. Why? It’s partly thanks to a family of proteins that mask, or ‘buffer’, the ill...

Human Genetic Modification

NGT vote: European Parliament opens the floodgates to a wave of patents

By Arche Noah, GMWatch | 06.17.2026

The European Parliament has voted for a wide-reaching deregulation of New Genomic Techniques (NGTs). There was no majority for amendments stopping patents on conventionally classically bred plants or NGT plants. “Today’s vote is a missed opportunity to protect Europe’s farmers...

Policies

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