Who's Advising the Government on Human Genetics?
By Alice Maynard,
BioNews
| 06. 29. 2015
Untitled Document
I served on the Human Genetics Commission (HGC) as a lay member from 2006 to 2012, and found exploring new developments in this area fascinating. On one hand, excitement - the push to a future of opportunity; on the other, uncertainty - the risk to a society we know and trust. I am forever grateful to the HGC for helping me understand my visceral response to some new developments - the 'yuck factor', as it has been so picturesquely called - getting past that to recognise the real opportunities and risks that such developments created.
Read more...
Related Articles
By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Emily Galpern] | 03.29.2026
More Americans are turning to surrogacy to build their families, as the practice becomes more common and more publicly discussed.
Why it matters: As surrogacy becomes more visible and accessible, ethical, legal and cultural tensions become harder to ignore...
By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Surrogacy360] | 03.29.2026
Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations/
Why it matters: Confusing, varied local rules can determine everything from whether agreements are legally binding to who is recognized as a parent at...
By Ryan Knutson and Jessica Mendoza, The Journal. | 03.27.2026
Genetically engineered babies are banned in the U.S. But that isn’t stopping Silicon Valley tech titans from trying to make one. In this final installment from The Journal’s investigation into the fringes of the fertility industry, WSJ’s Emily Glazer reports...
By Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review | 03.30.2026
After operating in secrecy for years, a startup company called R3 Bio, in Richmond, California, suddenly shared details about its work last week—saying it had raised money to create nonsentient monkey “organ sacks” as an alternative to animal testing.
In...
