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

Featured

Moratorium on Germline Gains Momentum

By Pete Shanks | 05.09.2019
Biopolitical Times

Sixty-two scientists, bioethicists, and biotechnology executives, including 10 members of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT), have joined the growing chorus calling for a global moratorium on heritable human genetic modification. They sent a detailed, public letter to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, explaining their strong opposition to the editing of human embryos that results in births.

The signatories to the letter included over 40 prominent academics, three of whom had also...

Technologies

Shaq’s New Ad Campaign Revives the Dangerous Push for Race-Specific Medicine

By Jonathan Kahn, Guest Columnist | 04.26.2019
Biopolitical Times
The heart failure medication BiDil is once again being marketed specifically to black patients. Given that race is neither a genetic nor a biological category, how did this happen? http://cup.columbia.edu/book/race-in-a-bottle/9780231162982
Biotech & Pharma

Talking Biopolitics: A Conversation with Tina Stevens and Stuart Newman

By avandervalk | 05.06.2019
Biopolitical Times
Biotech Juggernaut: Hope, Hype, and Hidden Agendas of Entrepreneurial BioScience (Routledge, 2019) documents the intensifying effort of bioentrepreneurs to apply genetic engineering technologies to the human species and to extend the commercial reach of synthetic biology. CGS spoke with authors Tina Stevens and Stuart Newman about the stories that led them to write Biotech Juggernaut and how they see this phenomenon playing out in 2019.
Technologies

Update on Legal Challenge to California’s DNA Retention Policy

Internal Content

On May 1, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Law Office of Michael T. Risher argued against the government’s motion...

Genomics
U.S. States
Civil Society
Racial Justice

Biopolitical Times

Moratorium on Germline Gains Momentum

By Pete Shanks | 05.09.2019

Sixty-two scientists, bioethicists, and biotechnology executives, including 10 members of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy (ASGCT), have...

Technologies

Talking Biopolitics: A Conversation with Tina Stevens and Stuart Newman

By avandervalk | 05.06.2019

Biotech Juggernaut: Hope, Hype, and Hidden Agendas of Entrepreneurial BioScience (Routledge, 2019) documents the intensifying effort of bioentrepreneurs to...

Technologies

Book Review: 'Can Science Make Sense of Life?'

By Pete Shanks | 05.03.2019

With this deceptively simple title, Sheila Jasanoff reveals only a hint of the rich content in her latest book. Her...

Technologies

News

Human Genome Editing: Our Future Belongs to All of Us

By Françoise Baylis, Issues in Science and Technology | 05.15.2019

In late November 2018, the Chinese scientist He Jiankui ignited a media firestorm with the birth announcement of “healthy” twin girls, Lulu and Nana (pseudonyms), born following germline genome editing to provide resistance to HIV. This announcement was followed by...

Technologies

A Decades-Old Doctor’s Secret Leads to New Fertility-Fraud Law

By Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic | 05.07.2019

In 2014, 23andMe tests revealed a decades-old secret in Indianapolis: A local fertility doctor named Donald Cline had secretly used his own sperm to impregnate his patients in the ’70s and ’80s. As the popularity of DNA tests grew...

Assisted Reproduction

Whom does your DNA belong to? Hint, it’s not just you.

By Eoin O'Carroll, The Christian Science Monitor [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.06.2019

When you submit your DNA to a personal genomics company like Ancestry or 23andme, you’re not just uncovering secrets about yourself, but potentially about other people.

That’s what Dani Shapiro learned after she spat into a tube and sent it to...

Technologies

Judge Poised to Advance Suit Over California DNA Collection

By Nicholas Iovino, Courthouse News Service | 05.01.2019

SAN FRANCISCO (CN) – Despite prior court rulings that police can collect DNA samples from people arrested but not convicted of crimes, a state court judge hinted Wednesday that holding onto that DNA data might violate the California Constitution.

“What...

Genomics

Video
Controversial Gene Editing Physicist Missing
Chinese Researcher Claims to Have Genetically Edited Babies
Where the Debate Over "Designer Babies" Began