News

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...

This is the first part of the 14th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. The series is organized by...

Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations/

Why it matters: Confusing...

"MC0_8230" via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by 2.0 

This report documents a deliberate assault on disabled people in...

gene therapy graphic
By Sriparna Roy, Reuters | 04.23.2026

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Regeneron’s gene therapy ‌for a rare genetic form of deafness, the company...

"superbaby" flies above DNA double helix
By John Donvan, WNYC and Open to Debate [with Marcy Darnovsky] | 04.23.2026

For complete introduction see Substack

Some call it eugenics, an unsettling step toward a world of “designer babies” reserved for...

sperm on blue background
By Emily Mullin, Wired | 04.23.2026

A STARTUP OUT of Utah, Paterna Biosciences, says it has successfully grown functional human sperm in a lab and used the...

Image of CRISPR
By Fyodor D. Urnov and Sadik H. Kassim, Nature | 04.21.2026

In February, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed a radical rethink of how scientists, physicians and manufacturers develop...

eugenics tree image
By Alex Aylward, Daniel J. Fairbanks, Maria Kiladi, and Gregory Radick , Heredity | 04.20.2026

Genetics and eugenics co-evolved at the beginning of the twentieth century and remained associated through the 1940s and beyond. Early...

images of embryo development
By Alfonso Martinez Arias, Nicolas Rivron, and Naomi Moris, BioNews | 04.20.2026

The ability of pluripotent stem cells to differentiate into different cell types has enabled the creation of stem-cell-based embryo models...

an image of sperm moving toward egg
By George Janes, BioNews | 04.20.2026

New regulations in sperm donation are being implemented by Belgium's Federal Agency for Medicines and Health Products (FAMHP), following revelations...

a graphic showing a flying baby and a scale reading "best"
By Abby Vesoulis, Mother Jones | 04.18.2026

Two years ago, we devoted an entire issue to the rise of the American oligarchy. Since then, our oligarchic...