News

23andMe’s DNA database is up for sale. Who might want it, and what for?

By Anumita Kaur [cites CGS’ Katie Hasson], The Washington Post | 03.25.2025

Genetic information company 23andMe has said that it is headed to bankruptcy court, raising questions for what happens to the DNA shared by millions of people with the company via saliva test kits.

Sunday’s announcement clears the way for a new...

Genomics

Center for Genetics and Society, et al. vs. Rob Bonta, et al.

By ACLU Northern California | 03.21.2025

In a long-standing lawsuit, the ACLU, on behalf of partner organizations and an individual taxpayer, is challenging the state of California for its retention of genetic samples and profiles from people arrested but never convicted of a felony.  

The complaint...

U.S. States

The couple who want to make America procreate again

By Anne Branigin, The Washington Post [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 02.04.2025

Photo by TeggorMindFish via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under
the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

It's a...

Genetic Selection

Should We Use Gene Editing to Create Super Babies?

By Staff [cites CGS' Katie Hasson], The New York Times Upfront | 02.17.2025

A young couple wants to have a baby, but they’re worried it’ll carry a disease that runs in the family...

Bioethics
woman and doctor

How a Billionaire’s ‘Baby Project’ Ensnared Dozens of Women

By Jackie Davalos and Sophie Alexander, Bloomberg | 12.02.2024

Photo by CDC on Unsplash

As Anya walked into the fertility clinic for an appointment to have her eggs retrieved...

U.S. States
baby feet

An I.V.F. Mix-Up, a Shocking Discovery and an Unbearable Choice

By Susan Dominus, The New York Times | 11.30.2024

In the days after Daphna Cardinale delivered her second child, she experienced a rare sense of calm and wonder. The...

Assisted Reproduction

FDA probes blood cancer risk from Bluebird’s gene therapy, weighs regulatory action

By Christy Santhosh, Reuters | 11.27.2024

Nov 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is weighing the need for regulatory action on bluebird bio's ...

Genomics
graphic depicting genetic selection

Silicon Valley’s tech elite want to make superbabies. They shouldn’t

By Julia Brown and Daphne Martschenko, The San Francisco Standard | 11.23.2024

“Pronatalist” parents like Simone and Malcolm Collins want it all: optimized babies – lots of them. 

To achieve this goal...

Genetic Selection
uterus

Who should get a uterus transplant? Experts aren’t sure.

By Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review | 11.22.2024

Earlier this year, a boy in Sweden celebrated his 10th birthday. Reproductive scientists and doctors marked the occasion too. This...

Assisted Reproduction
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