News

The quest to create gene-edited babies gets a reboot

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 08.06.2025

A Chinese scientist horrified the world in 2018 when he revealed he had secretly engineered the birth of the world's first gene-edited babies.

His work was reviled as reckless and unethical because, among other reasons, gene-editing was so new...

Genetic Selection

Baby Bonuses and Motherhood Medals: Why We Shouldn’t Trust the Pronatalist Movement

By Staff, National Women's Law Center | 08.13.2025

INTRODUCTION

Baby bonuses. Motherhood medals. Fertility tracking. You may have heard of these policy proposals as solutions from the Trump administration to help encourage women to have more children.

Besides falling short of ensuring that people have what they need...

Human Genetic Modification

We Don’t Know if the Babies Born From Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy Will Still Develop Mitochondrial Disease

By Katherine Drabiak, Journal of Medical Ethics Forum | 08.07.2025

^{Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at

National Human Genome Research Institute}

Recently, media outlets around the world have been reporting on...

Assisted Reproduction

Can doctors test embryos for autism? And should they?

By Brittany Luse, Liam McBain, and Neena Pathak, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.28.2025

A newly available kind of genetic testing, called polygenic embryo screening, promises to screen for conditions that can include cancer...

Genetic Selection

“NatalCon” and the Contradictions of the Pronatalist Right

By Daniel Colligan, Jacobin | 04.18.2025

^{From the Natalism website}

Last month’s gathering of pronatalists in Austin, Texas, revealed a right-wing milieu riven by internal contradictions...

Bioethics

DREDF Denounces RFK Jr.’s Comments on Autism as Hateful, Harmful and Uninformed

By Staff, DREDF | 04.17.2025

^{"Robert F. Kennedy Jr." by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by SA 3.0}

U.S. Department of Health...

Society

Pronatalism Isn’t a Solution, It’s a Problem.

By Sarah Jones, Intelligencer | 04.17.2025

^{From the Natalism website}

Elon Musk may not have appeared at the Natal Conference in Austin, Texas, this year, but...

Society

The Tactics Elon Musk Uses to Manage His ‘Legion’ of Babies—and Their Mothers

By Dana Mattioli, The Wall Street Journal | 04.15.2025

^{Image "Elon Musk" by Debbie Rowe on Wikimedia Commons

licensed under CC by S.A. 3.0}

Ashley St. Clair wanted to...

U.S. Federal

‘Make Motherhood Great Again’: Pronatalism Finds a Comfortable Home in the Trump Administration

By Shoshanna Ehrlich, Ms. Magazine | 04.15.2025

^{Promotional image from Natalism.org}

A month into President Donald Trump’s second term, Sean Duffy, the newly appointed secretary of the...

U.S. Federal

‘Medical calamity’: dozens of Dutch sperm donors fathered at least 25 children

By Jon Henley, The Guardian | 04.14.2025

At least 85 sperm donors in the Netherlands have fathered 25 or more children, the national gynaecology and obstetrics organisation...

Other Countries

Australian woman unknowingly gives birth to a stranger’s baby after IVF clinic error

By Charlotte Graham-Mclay, Associated Press | 04.11.2025

A woman in Australia unknowingly gave birth to a stranger’s baby after she received another patient’s embryo from her in...

Policies

Are Embryos Property or People? Even the Courts Are Confused

By Anna Louie Sussman, The New York Times | 04.08.2025

Before fertility patients begin the long journey through hormone treatments, egg retrieval, fertilization and — hopefully, if everything goes well...

U.S. States