Beyond IVF: Eugenics and Reproductive Biotechnology
By Jennifer Denbow,
Nursing Clio
| 10. 31. 2024
Access to in vitro fertilization (IVF) has emerged as a crucial issue in the 2024 election. While the Republican Party Platform claims support for access to IVF, many backers of Donald Trump and Project 2025 have pushed for restrictions on IVF. The Republican-backed Life at Conception Act would declare that an embryo is a human being from “the moment of fertilization.” If it passes, it would endanger IVF treatments across the country. As Senator, Trump’s vice-presidential candidate JD Vance voted against the opposing Right to IVF Act. In contrast, Kamala Harris has committed to access to IVF.
While IVF should absolutely be legally protected, politicians and public commentators should not flatten discussions of reproductive biotechnology as a simple choice between access and restriction. What is missing from this debate is the complex terrain that prospective parents have to navigate regarding reproductive genetic technologies. Over the past 25 years, biotechnology companies have rapidly developed a range of reproductive technologies, from non-invasive prenatal testing to polygenic embryo screening. Companies and researchers claim that other genetic detection, selection, and editing tools are on...
Related Articles
By Hannah Devlin, The Guardian | 07.05.2025
Scientists are just a few years from creating viable human sex cells in the lab, according to an internationally renowned pioneer of the field, who says the advance could open up biology-defying possibilities for reproduction.
Speaking to the Guardian, Prof...
By Rob Stein, NPR | 07.16.2025
Scientists can protect children from being born with certain devastating genetic disorders by creating "three-parent" babies, according to the results of a landmark study released Wednesday.
British researchers used the experimental technique to help families have eight children who appear...
By Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review | 07.18.2025
This week we heard that eight babies have been born in the UK following an experimental form of IVF that involves DNA from three people. The approach was used to prevent women with genetic mutations from passing mitochondrial diseases to...
By Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review | 07.16.2025
Eight babies have been born in the UK thanks to a technology that uses DNA from three people: the two biological parents plus a third person who supplies healthy mitochondrial DNA. The babies were born to mothers who carry genes...