News

Ethics changes notwithstanding, creating genetically modified babies is still illegal in SA

By Tamsin Metelerkamp [cites CGS' Katie Hasson], Daily Maverick | 11.18.2024

The National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC) has confirmed that heritable human genome editing (HHGE) remains illegal in South Africa, after changes in the latest version of the South African Ethics in Health Research Guidelines sparked concern among researchers that...

Genetic Selection

South Africa amended its research guidelines to allow for heritable human genome editing

By Françoise Baylis and Katie Hasson, The Conversation | 10.24.2024

A little-noticed change to South Africa’s national health research guidelines, published in May of this year, has put the country on an ethical precipice. The newly added language appears to position the country as the first to explicitly permit...

Policies

The New Artificial Intelligentsia

By Ruha Benjamin, Los Angeles Review of Books | 10.18.2024

IN THE FALL OF 2016, I gave a talk at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton titled “Are Robots...

A "Post-Human" Future?

US startup charging couples to ‘screen embryos for IQ’

By Hannah Devlin, Tom Burgis, David Pegg, and Jason Wilson, The Guardian [cites CGS’ Katie Hasson] | 10.18.2024

A US startup company is offering to help wealthy couples screen their embryos for IQ using controversial technology that raises...

Genetic Selection
willow brook

The Horrors of Hepatitis Research

By Carl Elliott, The New York Review of Books | 11.21.2024

Photo "Traces of Willowbrook" by Matt Green on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

In academic medicine, as with Confederate statuary...

Society
dna graphic

WHO releases new principles for ethical human genomic data collection and sharing

By World Health Organization, World Health Organization | 11.20.2024

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a set of principles for the ethical collection, access, use and sharing of...

Policies
Elon Musk

He has already fathered many children. Now Musk wants all of the US to embrace extreme breeding

By Arwa Mahdawi, The Guardian | 11.19.2024

Photo "Elon Musk Presenting Tesla's Fully Autonomous Future" by  on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Is Elon Musk...

Genetic Selection
AI graphic

UN puts AI Titans on the hook for billions of dollars of biopiracy payments

By Jim Thomas, Scan the Horizon | 11.19.2024

It’s the wee hours of 2nd November 2024 in Cali, Colombia. In a large UN negotiating hall   Colombian Environment Minister...

Genomics
reproduction graphics

Emboldened anti-abortion groups create wishlist for second Trump term

By Carter Sherman, The Guardian | 11.17.2024

The anti-abortion movement is ready for its comeback in 2025.

With the return of Donald Trump to the White...

Policies
gene editing graphic

The Legal and Ethical Debate on Human Heritable Genome Editing (HHGE) in South Africa

By Jantina de Vries, EthicsLab | 11.15.2024

The conversation around human heritable genome editing (HHGE) in South Africa is marked by controversy and conflicting interpretations of the...

Other Countries
DNA

Ethics Washing: The Misappropriation of Ubuntu in the Ethics of Heritable Human Genome Editing (HHGE)

By Anye Nyamnjoh, EthicsLab | 11.15.2024

In their argument for equal access to heritable human genome editing (HHGE) as a healthcare service for future generations...

Other Countries
Elon Musk

Elon Musk Has Always Been Like This. So Has Silicon Valley.

By Colette Shade, The New Republic | 11.14.2024

Photo "Elon Musk" by Daniel Oberhaus on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Would Donald Trump have won reelection if not for...

Policies