News

These companies help parents try to pick their babies' traits. Experts are wary

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.06.2026

Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.

"These are saliva samples as well as blood," says Schleede, a geneticist who runs Herasight Inc.'s lab in Morrisville, N.C. "We also...

Genetic Selection

The Measured Listener

By Daniel Shanahan, Los Angeles Review of Books | 05.31.2026

This is the 15th 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. You can read the first part here. The series...

U.S. States

The start-ups dreaming of creating genetically modified babies

By Alexandre Piquard, Le Monde [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.22.2026

"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of...

U.S. Federal

Natural Election

By Jonathan Basile, Los Ángeles Review of Books | 04.29.2026

WILLIAM BATESON, a foundational figure in the science of genetics at the turn of the last century, once recounted the...

Society

The Promise and Perils of the New Fertility Entrepreneurs

By Anna Louie Sussman, The New Yorker | 05.19.2021

France Brunel, who is thirty-six, first considered freezing her eggs after ending a two-year relationship, in 2018. She’s not sure...

Media Coverage

One-time CRISPR hit lowers cholesterol in monkeys

By Alla Katsnelson, Chemical & Engineering News | 05.19.2021

^{“Cholesterol emboli” by Boonyarit Cheunsuchon

is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0}

A single shot of gene therapy lowers “bad”...

Animal Biotechnologies

Decades after a tragic failure, gene therapy successfully treats a rare liver disease

By Jocelyn Kaiser, Science | 05.18.2021

Twenty-two years ago, one of scientists’ first attempts at gene therapy ended in tragedy when a young man died. The...

Human Genetic Modification

University of Cape Town’s battle to tackle a racist legacy

By Linda Nordling, Nature | 05.18.2021

^{Photo by Tony Carr via Flickr}

In 2015, a giant crane hoisted a 900-kilogram bronze statue of the imperialist Cecil...

LGBTQI

Mixed messages: is research into human-monkey embryos ethical?

By Philip Ball, The Guardian | 05.15.2021

When King Minos of Crete was given a magnificent bull by the sea god Poseidon for a sacrifice, he could...

Animal Biotechnologies

How a Genetic Trait in Black People Can Give the Police Cover

By Michael LaForgia and Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, New York Times | 05.15.2021

When they carried the body of a 32-year-old Black man named Lamont Perry out of the woods in Wadesboro, N.C...

Bioethics

The Eugenics Roots of Evangelical Family Values

By Audrey Clare Farley, Religion & Politics | 05.12.2021

Beth Moore is still making waves. On April 7, soon after announcing her departure from the Southern Baptist Convention, she ...

Perspectives

Ethics of Surrogacy During COVID-19 Pandemic

By Cathy Sakimura and Emily Galpern, Men Having Babies | 05.12.2021

The COVID pandemic has placed new hurdles to having a child through surrogacy, complicating international surrogacy in particular by restricting...

Bioethics