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

The Future Of Fertility In 2026

By Jenn White, NPR | 02.26.2026

Millions of people struggle to become pregnant in the U.S. And in 2024, fertility rates reached a new low, according to CDC data. Women are also waiting longer to have kids, while a growing number are deciding to opt out...

U.S. Federal

FDA unveils long-awaited guidance on new pathway for individualized therapies

By Zachary Brennan, Endpoints News | 02.23.2026

The FDA is spelling out the details of a new pathway to help speed personalized cell and gene therapies to market for rare diseases.

Monday’s long-awaited draft guidance outlines the agency’s “plausible mechanism” framework, a pathway FDA Commissioner Marty Makary...

Policies

Why Team Trump Talking About ‘Lethalitymaxxing’ Should Alarm You

By Ilyse Hogue, The Bulwark | 02.20.2026

Since I started working to understand the radicalization of young men, I’ve gotten asked the same question everywhere I go: Are they a lost cause for Democrats? Too redpilled to reach? Too far gone to bring back?

My answer has...

Arts & Culture

Gene Editing Has Struggled To Go Commercial. This Nobel Laureate Has A $1 Billion Plan To Fix That.

By Amy Feldman, Forbes | 02.17.2026

"Jennifer Doudna" by Duncan Hull for the Royal Society via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by SA 3.0

Soon after KJ Muldoon was born in August 2024, he was lethargic and wouldn’t eat. His worried doctors realized his ammonia...

Patents & Other IP

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