News

'Superbabies' Startup Seeks Funds for Controversial Gene Editing Push

By Sophie Alexander and Ike Swetlitz, Bloomberg | 06.25.2025

A California-startup focused on genetically editing human embryos — a step toward creating so-called designer babies — is raising money as many of Silicon Valley’s ultra-rich turn their attention to one of the most controversial technologies in medicine.

Bootstrap Bio...

Patents & Other IP

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, obesity, autism, bipolar disorder, even celiac disease. These conditions are informed by many genetic variants and environmental factors - so...

Genetic Selection

Why Deleting Your 23andMe Data Is a Political Imperative

By Katie Sagaser, The DNA Exchange | 05.27.2025

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this piece are solely my own and do not represent those of my...

U.S. Federal

Trumpian “Common Sense” and the History of IQ Tests

By Pepper Stetler, Los Angeles Review of Books | 05.08.2025

^{"Donald Trump Signs The Pledge" by Michael Vadon

is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.}

This is...

Society

The Last Children of Down Syndrome

By Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic | 11.18.2020

^{Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash}

Every few weeks or so, Grete Fält-Hansen gets a call from a stranger asking a...

Genetic Selection

Resisting the rise of facial recognition

By Antoaneta Roussi, Nature | 11.18.2020

^{Photo by Paweł Czerwiński on Unsplash}

In Belgrade’s Republic Square, dome-shaped cameras hang prominently on wall fixtures, silently scanning people...

Policies

Marie Stopes UK Finally Changes Name To Cut Ties With Eugenicist

By Rachel Moss, HuffPost | 11.17.2020

^{Constructive Birth Control Poster, from the Wellcome Library via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0}

The UK’s largest abortion provider...

Abortion provider changes name over Marie Stopes eugenics link

By News, BBC | 11.17.2020

^{Dr. Marie Stopes at the time of her marriage to Mr. H.V. Roe, 1918 (cropped). From the Wellcome Library,...}

Society

California’s vote to revive controversial stem-cell institute sparks debate

By Nidhi Subbaraman, Nature | 11.16.2020

Voters in California have approved US$5.5 billion in funding for stem-cell and other medical research, granting a lifeline to a...

Stem Cells

The Bioeconomics of Covid-19

By Judith Levine, n+1 | 11.13.2020

^{Back of the 50 centime emergency note issued in 1916 by the Merksplas Local Board of the National Assistance and...}

Bioethics

UN warns of impact of smart borders on refugees: ‘Data collection isn't apolitical’

By Katy Fallon, The Guardian | 11.11.2020

Robotic lie detector tests at European airports, eye scans for refugees and voice-imprinting software for use in asylum applications are...

Global Governance

Egg-freezing has risen in lockdown, but it’s not the cure-all it’s cracked up to be

By Katie Strick and Lucy Holden, Evening Standard | 11.10.2020

Alice Mann wishes she’d known the odds from the start. The marketing consultant was 36, single and heartbroken after the...

Assisted Reproduction