News

Surrogacy goes more mainstream

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...

U.S. Federal

Eugenics and the Modern Synthesis, Part I

By Jessica Riskin, Los Ángeles Review of Books | 03.23.2026

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...

Civil Society

Surrogacy laws are all over the map

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...

Policies

Project Eugenics: The Rollback of Disability Rights

By Kiana Jackson and Shannon Stubblefield, New Disabled South | 02.09.2026

^{"MC0_8230" via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by 2.0}

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

U.S. States

a science building with a model of the human brain and skull made of transparent plastic

As PopSci turns 150, we reflect on the highs and lows of our long history

By Corinne Iozzio, Popular Science | 05.02.2022

^{Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash}

The work of creating science has been organized for centuries,” wrote Popular Science founder...

Eugenics

Where Harvard’s Legacy of Slavery Lives Today

By Cara J. Chang, Isabella B. Cho, Ella L. Jones, And Monique I. Vobecky, The Harvard Crimson | 05.02.2022

^{Photo by Manu Ros on Unsplash}

Harvard’s campus is replete with the names of prominent historical figures who were essential...

Perspectives

Our Obsession with Ancestry Has Some Twisted Roots

By Maya Jasanoff, The New Yorker | 05.02.2022

A mile into Utah’s Little Cottonwood Canyon, heading east from Salt Lake City toward the Wasatch ski slopes, several concrete...

U.S. States

3 dna double helixes of 3 different colors

Substituting genetic ancestry for race in research? Not so fast

By Anna C. F. Lewis, STAT | 05.02.2022

Race, widely used as a variable across biomedical research and medicine, is an appropriate proxy for racism — but not...

Genomics

Australia Moves Ahead Cautiously With '3-Parent IVF'

By Emily Mullin, Wired | 04.29.2022

^{Photo by Michael on Unsplash}

Australia has become the second country after the United Kingdom to legalize a fertility procedure...

Policies

Not the full story: Seeking eugenics history in Yale’s science curriculum

By Tigerlily Hopson, Yale News | 04.29.2022

^{Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash}

According to students and professors, the mark of eugenics has not left campus —...

Public Opinion

China focuses on ethics to deter another ‘CRISPR babies’ scandal

By Smriti Mallapaty, Nature | 04.27.2022

^{"China Flag" by BWJones is

marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.}

China’s powerful State Council is calling on research...

Policies

Trans men’s eggs have been matured in the lab—and could help them have children

By Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review | 04.26.2022

Ovaries contain hundreds of thousands of underdeveloped eggs, held in a kind of suspended animation. Each month, one matures and...

Assisted Reproduction