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

Rejuvenation by controlled reprogramming is the latest gambit in anti-aging

By Michael Eisenstein, Nature Biotechnology | 01.19.2022

On 19 January, co-founders Rick Klausner and Hans Bishop publicly launched an aging research initiative called Altos Labs, with $3...

Animal Biotechnologies

Xenotransplantation: Three Areas of Concern

By L. Syd M. Johnson, The Hastings Center Bioethics Forum | 01.19.2022

News of the first transplant of a pig’s heart into a human was widely reported last week, raising hope that...

Synthetic Biology

Deregulating GMOs in the UK

By GMWatch, GMWatch | 01.19.2022

A new analysis by A Bigger Conversation suggests that, in its haste to deregulate agricultural gene technologies, the UK government...

Policies

Going bald? Lab-grown hair cells could be on the way

By Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review | 01.18.2022

^{Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash}

Biologists at several startups are applying the latest advances in genetic engineering to the...

Stem Cells

Sperm donation is largely unregulated, but that could soon change as lawsuits multiply

By Naomi Cahn and Sonia Suter, The Conversation | 01.18.2022

^{"Advertisement for sperm donors, MIT Tech"

by milan.ilnyckyj is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0}

When Wendy and Janet Norman...

Policies

Artificial intelligence can discriminate on the basis of race and gender, and also age

By Charlene Chu, Kathleen Leslie, Rune Nyrup, and Shehroz Khan, The Conversation | 01.18.2022

^{Image by Mike MacKenzie licensed

under CC BY 2.0 via www.vpnsrus.com}

We have accepted the use of artificial intelligence (AI)...

A "Post-Human" Future?

NHS pilots genetic testing to predict risk of heart disease

By Hannah Devlin, The Guardian | 01.17.2022

A world-first pilot of predictive genetic testing aiming to identify those at high risk of cardiovascular disease is under way...

Policies

The legacy of eugenics at U.Va.

By Jack Morgan, The Cavalier Daily | 01.17.2022

In a majority opinion written in 1927 for the Supreme Court case Buck v. Bell, Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell...

U.S. States