Letter to the Editor: Popsicle Politics
By Marcy Darnovsky,
Mother Jones
| 08. 31. 2006
Both "Breeder Reaction" and "Souls on Ice" begin to tackle the profound issues and difficult questions raised by new human biotechnologies: How do we take reproductive and genetic technologies out of the free-market realm of anything-goes-for-those-who-can-pay, while making sure that we protect reproductive rights? How do we reap the potential benefits of human biotech, while making sure that we're not on the road either to a brave new world of designer babies or to ever greater health inequities because of hugely expensive designer medicine?
A number of countries, including Canada and the United Kingdom, have put in place comprehensive policies to regulate assisted reproduction and research that involves human embryos. But not the United States—here again, we're a Wild West, with scant public oversight.
Related Articles
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...
By Paula Siverino Bavio, BioNews | 01.12.2026
For more than ten years, gestational surrogacy in Uruguay existed in a state of legal latency: provided for by law, carefully regulated as an exception, yet without a single birth to make it real.
That situation changed with the arrival...
By Hannah Devlin, The Guardian | 01.08.2026
Scientists claim to have “rejuvenated” human eggs for the first time in an advance that they predict could revolutionise IVF success rates for older women.
The groundbreaking research suggests that an age-related defect that causes genetic errors in embryos could...
By Katherine Long, The Wall Street Journal | 12.27.2025
Nia Trent-Wilson owes $182,889.63 in medical bills for a baby that wasn’t hers.
In late 2021, she agreed to act as a surrogate through an agency that paired her with a gay couple from Washington, D.C. The terms were typical...