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

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. But according to the Wall Street Journal, Bay Area startups are focused on just that. It wouldn’t be the first...

Genetic Selection

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...

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

Biopolitical Times

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

Good Trouble

By Pete Shanks | 12.18.2025

A Review of Exposed by Becky McClain

“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic...

Society

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

News

To Give Birth or Not to Give Birth

By Evelina Johansson Wilén, Jacobin | 01.18.2026

In her book The Argonauts, Maggie Nelson describes pregnancy as an experience marked by a peculiar duality. On the one hand, it is deeply transformative, bodily alien, sometimes almost incomprehensible to the person undergoing it. On the other hand...

U.S. States

The mirage of AI deregulation

By Alondra Nelson, Science | 01.15.2026

One of the most interventionist approaches to technology governance in the United States in a generation has cloaked itself in the language of deregulation. In early December 2025, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to announce a forthcoming “One...

Global Governance

These genes were thought to lead to blindness 100% of the time. They don't.

By Stephanie Pappas, LiveScience | 01.15.2026

Genetic variants believed to cause blindness in nearly everyone who carries them actually lead to vision loss less than 30% of the time, new research finds.

The study challenges the concept of Mendelian diseases, or diseases and disorders attributed to...

Society

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

There is growing concern that falling fertility rates will lead to economic and demographic catastrophe. The social and political movement known as pronatalism looks to combat depopulation by encouraging people to have as many children as possible. But not just...

Genetic Selection

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