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.

Featured

Silicon Valley’s race to produce genetically engineered humans

By Katie Hasson | 11.21.2025
Biopolitical Times

Several recent Biopolitical Times posts (1, 2, 3, 4) have called attention to the alarmingly rapid commercialization of “designer baby” technologies: polygenic embryo screening (especially its use to purportedly screen for traits like intelligence), in vitro gametogenesis (lab-made eggs and sperm), and heritable genome editing (also termed embryo editing or reproductive gene editing). Those three, together with artificial wombs, have been dubbed the “Gattaca stack” by Brian Armstrong, CEO of the cryptocurrency company...

Genetic Selection

Remembering Disability Justice Warrior Alice Wong

By Emily Galpern | 11.20.2025
Biopolitical Times

Alice Wong, founder of the Disability Visibility Project, MacArthur Genius, liberationist, storyteller, writer, and friend of CGS, died on November 14. Alice shone a bright light on pervasive ableism in our society. She articulated how people with disabilities are limited not by an inability to do things but by systemic segregation and discrimination, the de-prioritization of accessibility, and the devaluation of their lives.

We at CGS learned so much from Alice about disability justice, which goes beyond rights...

Arts & Culture

Developments in gene-editing technology raise new ethical questions

By [cites CGS' Katie Hasson], KCBS Radio | 11.19.2025

Aggregated News

This is Ask An Expert, where every weekday at 9:20am, KCBS Radio is giving you direct access to top experts...

U.S. Federal

Who Gets to Procreate and Parent? A Black Feminist Critique of the Pronatalist Agenda

By Jallicia A. Jolly, Sydney Curtis and Nicole Sessions, Ms. Magazine | 10.17.2025

Aggregated News

Pronatalism is an old idea with roots in eugenics and nationalism, that is now fashionable among far-right influencers and policymakers. They talk...

U.S. Federal

Biopolitical Times

Silicon Valley’s race to produce genetically engineered humans

By Katie Hasson | 11.21.2025

Several recent Biopolitical Times posts (1, 2, 3, 4) have called attention to the alarmingly...

Genetic Selection

Remembering Disability Justice Warrior Alice Wong

By Emily Galpern | 11.20.2025

Alice Wong, founder of the Disability Visibility Project, MacArthur Genius, liberationist, storyteller, writer, and friend of CGS, died...

Arts & Culture

In Memoriam: James Watson, 1928–2025

By Pete Shanks | 11.18.2025

Public domain portrait of James D. Watson by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
and the National Human Genome Research Institute on...

Human Genetic Modification

News

A Century After the Eugenics Movement, the U.S. Is Again Barring Disabled Immigrants

By Emma Cieslik, Ms. Magazine | 11.20.2025

Photo by The New York Public Library on Unsplash

This piece includes sanist slurs used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

This month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio instructed visa officers to consider obesity and other chronic health...

U.S. Federal

Tech Capitalists Don’t Care About Humans. Literally.

By Emile Torres, Jacobin | 11.15.2025

Watching tech moguls throw caution to the wind in the AI arms race or equivocate on whether humanity ought to continue, it’s natural to wonder whether they care about human lives.

The earnest, in-depth answer to this question is just...

Global Governance

Investors’ ‘dumb transhumanist ideas’ setting back neurotech progress, say experts

By Aisha Down, The Guardian | 11.10.2025

It has been an excellent year for neurotech, if you ignore the people funding it. In August, a tiny brain implant successfully decoded the inner speech of paralysis patients. In October, an eye implant restored sight to patients who had...

Patents & Other IP

‘They treat men like vending machines’: inside the hidden world of social media sperm selling

By Robyn Vinter, The Guardian | 11.09.2025

A man going by the name “Rod Kissme” claims to have “very strong sperm”. It may seem like an eccentric boast for a Facebook profile page, but then this is no mundane corner of the internet. The group where Rod...

Other Countries

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