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

Troubling podcast puts JAMA, the ‘voice of medicine,’ under fire for its mishandling of race

By Usha Lee McFarling, STAT | 04.06.2021

Weeks after it was scrubbed from the Journal of the American Medical Association’s website, a disastrous podcast — whose host...

Bioethics

Surviving the Crackdown in Xinjiang

By Raffi Khatchadourian, The New Yorker | 04.05.2021

I. HOME

When Anar Sabit was in her twenties and living in Vancouver, she liked to tell her friends that...

Eugenics

Harbingers of Things to Come in Gene Therapy

By Josh P. Roberts, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | 04.02.2021

^{Photo by CDC on Unsplash}

It is one thing to anticipate what gene therapy will look like in 5 years...

Human Genetic Modification

What Is It to Be Human Anymore?

By Michael Hirsh, Foreign Policy | 04.02.2021

This book is not for the faint of mind. Walter Isaacson is a great storyteller who has devoted his justly...

Society

Reparations for CA forced sterilization survivors: Support AB 1007

By Aminah Elster, The Daily Californian | 04.02.2021

Between 1909 and 1979, California forcibly sterilized over 20,000 people of color, people with disabilities and imprisoned people. Based on...

Civil Society

“Small” changes made with gene editing cause severe deformities in plants

By GMWatch | 04.01.2021

^{Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash}

Gene editing causes drastic unwanted effects in gene-edited plants including severe deformities, a new...

Genetic Selection

Official apology for eugenics program moves ahead in Vermont Legislature

By Ethan Bakuli, Burlington Free Press | 04.01.2021

^{Photo by Joshua Sukoff on Unsplash}

An apology letter intended to acknowledge Vermont's role in a program that sought to...

U.S. States

FDA approves CRISPR gene therapy trials for sickle cell disease

By Catherine Hsu, The Daily Californian | 04.01.2021

CRISPR genome editing technology, which was developed at UC Berkeley, has been approved for clinical trials to correct gene mutations...

Genetic Selection