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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The Shameful Legacy of Tuskegee Is Still Relevant

By Pete Shanks | 01.28.2026
Biopolitical Times

Group of Tuskegee Experiment test subjects
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Every generation needs to learn about what is commonly known as the Tuskegee syphilis study, which ran from 1932 to 1972. (Officially, it was the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee, Alabama, which gets the emphasis right.) For many people, the history is hard to believe, though it is hardly unique. Of the 600 subjects, all Black men, 399 had syphilis, for which...

U.S. Federal

The Mysterious Eugenics of Aesthetic Taste

By Michael Rossi, The Los Angeles Review of Books | 01.11.2026

Aggregated News

This is the 10th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. The series is organized by Osagie K. Obasogie in...

Arts & Culture

More and “Better” Babies: The Dark Side of the Pronatalist Movement

By Daphne O. Martschenko and Julia E. H. Brown, Hastings Bioethics Forum | 01.14.2026

Aggregated News

There is growing concern that falling fertility rates will lead to economic and demographic catastrophe. The social and political movement...

Genetic Selection

Bay Area Startups Want to Make Genetically Engineered Babies. What Could Go Wrong?

By Grace Won, KQED Forum [with CGS' Katie Hasson] | 12.02.2025

Aggregated News

In the U.S., it’s illegal to edit genes in human embryos with the intention of creating a genetically engineered baby...

Genetic Selection

Biopolitical Times

Public Health, Vaccines and Modern Eugenics

By Pete Shanks | 02.27.2026

Last month, we published “The Shameful Legacy of Tuskegee” which focused on a proposed experiment in Guinea-Bissau. The...

Bioethics

The Shameful Legacy of Tuskegee Is Still Relevant

By Pete Shanks | 01.28.2026

Group of Tuskegee Experiment test subjects
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Every generation needs to learn about what is commonly...

U.S. Federal

Some of Our Favorite 2025 Blog Posts

By Pete Shanks | 01.06.2026

Following a long-standing CGS tradition, we present a selection of our favorite Biopolitical Times posts of the past year.

In...

Policies

News

Eugenics and the Modern Synthesis, Part II

By Jessica Riskin, Los Ángeles Review of Books | 03.24.2026

 

This is the second part of the 14th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. You can read the...

Bioethics

The potential loophole in Trump’s plan to get other countries to pay more for drugs

By John Wilkerson, Stat | 03.24.2026

"Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the South Point Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada" by Gage Skidmore licensed under CC by SA 2.0 

Comments from a top Trump administration health official add to...

Animal Biotechnologies

Q&A: Embryo editing entrepreneur Cathy Tie closes one startup and begins another in biology’s most taboo frontier

By Ryan Cross, Endpoints News | 03.24.2026

Cathy Tie has an audacity more typical of a tech startup founder than a biotech executive. She dropped out of college to start a genetic screening company and later founded a telemedicine startup. The 29-year-old has been on two Forbes...

Genetic Selection

Eugenics and the Modern Synthesis, Part I

By Jessica Riskin, Los Ángeles Review of Books | 03.23.2026

This is the first part of the 14th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. The series is organized by...

Civil Society

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