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

Before making a mammoth, ask the public

By Victoria Herridge, Nature | 10.20.2021

^{Image by Russ Seidel on Flickr}

Every few years for the past 20 or so, the story resurfaces, frozen in...

Synthetic Biology

“Science and Technology Now Sit in the Center of Every Policy and Social Issue”

By Alondra Nelson and William Kearney, Issues in Science and Technology | 10.19.2021

^{Photo of Alondra Nelson by Dan Komoda}

In January 2021, President Biden appointed sociologist Alondra Nelson, a leading scholar...

U.S. Federal

In a First, Surgeons Attached a Pig Kidney to a Human, and It Worked

By Roni Caryn Rabin, The New York Times | 10.19.2021

Surgeons in New York have successfully attached a kidney grown in a genetically altered pig to a human patient and...

Animal Biotechnologies

a picture of the now removed Robert E Lee statue

Ghosting the Confederacy

By Erin Thompson, Harper's Bazaar | 10.18.2021

^{"Robert E. Lee IMG_2662" by OZinOH

is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0}

What should happen to Confederate monuments after...

Society

Empty Vermont State House, where the apology was given

Vermont’s legislative leaders apologize for state-sanctioned eugenics movement

By Rachel Nostrant, VTDigger | 10.18.2021

^{Photo of Vermont State House by Don Shall on Flickr}

MONTPELIER — Legislative leaders formally apologized on Saturday for Vermont’s...

Eugenics

Inside Nigeria’s unregulated human egg industry

By Mariam Adetona, Al Jazeera | 10.17.2021

It was a hot afternoon in October 2019, and 22-year-old Joan* [Names have been changed] had just been crying...

Other Countries

Polygenic screening of embryos is here, but is it ethical?

By Philip Ball, The Guardian [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 10.17.2021

The birth of the first IVF baby, Louise Brown, in 1978 provoked a media frenzy. In comparison, a little girl...

Genomics

The Children of Sperm Donors Want to Change the Rules of Conception

By Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic | 10.15.2021

^{Photo by Hans-Peter Gauster on Unsplash}

Damian Adams grew up knowing that his parents had used an anonymous sperm donor...

Other Countries