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

Featured

Is Gene Therapy Delivering on Its Promises?

By Pete Shanks | 01.18.2023
Biopolitical Times

Gene therapy has been the next big thing in medicine for decades. Until recent years, the results were underwhelming. Now there are promising developments and real successes, but significant questions remain: Is it safe enough? How many people might benefit, and under what conditions?  And, crucially, how much will gene therapies cost and who will pay?

It has been more than 50 years since gene therapy was formally proposed; more than 40 years since the first scandal; more than 30...

Human Genetic Modification

Hipster Eugenics: Better Babies for Billionaires

By Pete Shanks | 11.30.2022
Biopolitical Times

Cropped from: “Decentralized_Transhumanism” by
Leonel Sohns, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The techno-utopian credos known as “effective altruism” and “longtermism” have recently gained wide notice, judging by Google searches, news articles, and personal experience. Far less attention has been paid to “hipster eugenics,” a term that brutally but accurately sums up the alarming trend previously known by the perhaps more anodyne “designer babies.” All are closely related.

Effective altruism has been defined rather politely as “a global philanthropic...

Assisted Reproduction

The Next Gene Editing Summit Begins to Come into Focus

By Pete Shanks | 10.07.2022
Biopolitical Times

The UK Royal Society has published an overview and schedule for the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing, which...

Policies

Dorothy Roberts Tried To Warn Us

By Irin Carmon, New York Magazine | 09.06.2022

Aggregated News

One day in 2006, Dorothy Roberts went in for a conference with her youngest son’s teacher. The boy, said the...

Perspectives

Biopolitical Times

Is Gene Therapy Delivering on Its Promises?

By Pete Shanks | 01.18.2023

Gene therapy has been the next big thing in medicine for decades. Until recent years, the results were underwhelming. Now...

Human Genetic Modification

The Center for Genetics and Society: 2022 Highlights

By CGS Staff | 01.14.2023

Photo by Isabela Kronemberger on Unsplash

Throughout 2022, CGS worked to deepen and expand collaborations with advocates and scholars concerned...

Policies

Bespoke Babies Without the Hassle of Pregnancy! Yeah, Right

By Pete Shanks | 12.23.2022

Partial screenshot of “EctoLife”

In early December, “Science communicator and video producer” Hashem Al-Ghaili posted a video on his Linkedin...

Assisted Reproduction

News

Sickle Cell Cure Brings Mix of Anxiety and Hope

By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 01.17.2023

Photo by ANIRUDH on Unsplash

Terry Jackson lives a life dominated by sickle cell disease. The genetic disorder, in which misshapen red cells become wedged in blood vessels, causes him daily bone pain and lower back pain and has sent...

Society

Scientists create genetic ‘pen’ that corrects common heart conditions

By Manuel Ansede, El País | 01.15.2023

The gene editing techniques that have revolutionized medicine since 2016 could also be used to treat common heart diseases, the number one cause of death in humans, according to a study published recently by one of the world’s leading scientists, ...

Human Genetic Modification

Prominent AI Philosopher and ‘Father’ of Longtermism Sent Very Racist Email to a 90s Philosophy Listserv

By Matthew Gault and Jordan Pearson, Vice | 01.12.2023

Nick Bostrom, an influential philosopher at the University of Oxford who has been called the “father” of the longtermism movement, has apologized for a racist email he sent in the mid-90s. In the email, Bostrom said that “Blacks are...

Eugenics

A California Search: Forging a Path to Pay for Multimillion-Dollar Gene Therapies for Rare Diseases?

By David Jensen, The California Stem Cell Report | 01.11.2023

Two prestigious campuses of the University of California are eyeing the creation of an entity that would cover the multimillion-dollar price tags of genetic therapies for the life-threatening bubble baby disease.

Also likely to be involved in some fashion is the California...

Policies

Video
A Dangerous Idea: Eugenics in America
Use Gene Editing to Treat Patients, Not Design Babies
CRISPR: What is the future of gene editing? | Start Here