CGS encourages responsible uses and effecitve governance of human genetic and assisted reproductive technologies

Featured

“He is untouchable”: Penn officials allegedly cover up workplace abuse at James Wilson's Gene Therapy Program

By Katie Hasson | 05.11.2022
Biopolitical Times

 Rehua, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

James Wilson, director of the Gene Therapy Program at Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, is facing claims that he has condoned and contributed to a “dysfunctional toxic workplace.” According to reporters at Penn’s independent student newspaper, it appears that top university officials are protecting him from these charges because his biotechnology companies, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, pay lucrative licensing fees to the school.

Twenty years ago...

Patents & Other IP

War in Ukraine Exacerbates Problems with Surrogacy Industry

By Emily Galpern | 03.31.2022
Biopolitical Times

For a roundup of recent articles on the impact of the war on surrogacy, see this page at Surrogacy360, a project of the Center for Genetics and Society

Photos and videos of newborns lined up in plastic cots in a Ukrainian hotel room plastered the news at the beginning of the COVID pandemic; their parents were unable to reach them due to travel restrictions. As soon as Russia invaded Ukraine over a month ago, similar images emerged – though...

Other Countries

Should we use genome editing to make better babies? Here’s what the experts think

By Tim Brinkhof, Big Think [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 03.23.2022

Aggregated News

George Church is one of the world’s most famous pioneers of genetics and biotechnology. He has made colossal contributions to...

Society

Virtual Conference Wrapup: Looking Ahead to the Third Human Genome Editing Summit

By Pete Shanks | 03.15.2022
Biopolitical Times

The Royal Society’s 3-day online substitute for the postponed Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing seems to have been...

Genomics

Biopolitical Times

Do Genes Shape our Politics?

By Pete Shanks | 06.09.2022

Photo by Element5 Digital on Unsplash

I often think it's comical how Nature always does contrive
That every boy and...

Genomics

“We don’t understand this system as well as we thought we did.”

By Pete Shanks | 06.09.2022

Syrian hamster, by John Stockla,
CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The high-profile debates over gene editing, especially...

Animal Biotechnologies

Terrorist Cites Genetic Research to Promote White Supremacy

By Pete Shanks | 05.26.2022

A Eugenics Society poster (1930s) from the 
Wellcome Library Eugenics Society Archive via Wikimedia

On a Saturday afternoon in May...

Genetic Selection

News

Science must overcome its racist legacy: Nature’s guest editors speak

By Melissa Nobles , Chad Womack , Ambroise Wonkam & Elizabeth Wathuti, Nature | 06.08.2022

Science is a human endeavour that is fuelled by curiosity and a drive to better understand and shape our natural and material world. Science is also a shared experience, subject both to the best of what creativity and imagination have...

Eugenics

The Long Shadow of Eugenics in America

By Linda Villarosa, The New York Times Magazine | 06.08.2022

Photo by Ante Samarzija on Unsplash

As young girls, the Relf sisters were sterilized without consent. What does the government owe them — and the thousands of other living victims?

I keep a sepia-tone photograph of the Relf sisters folded...

Genomics

If Roe is overturned, the ripples could affect IVF and genetic testing of embryos, experts warn

By Andrew Joseph , STAT | 06.06.2022

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

Through their foundation, Allie LaForce and Joe Smith have so far helped families have 17 healthy babies.

The group works with would-be parents who have the fatal neurodegenerative condition Huntington’s disease in their families...

Assisted Reproduction

It seems digital children are the future. But if it’s that convenient, it isn’t really a child

By Staff, The Indian Express | 06.03.2022

Photo by Andrea De Santis on Unsplash

With more and more people deciding not to have children, Catriona Campbell, author of AI by Design: A Plan For Living With Artificial Intelligence, believes that digital children, designed to resemble their “parents”...

Synthetic Biology

Video
A Dangerous Idea: Eugenics in America
Use Gene Editing to Treat Patients, Not Design Babies
CRISPR: What is the future of gene editing? | Start Here