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

On Racism: A New Standard For Publishing On Racial Health Inequities

By Rhea W. Boyd, Edwin G. Lindo, Lachelle D. Weeks, Monica R. McLemore, Health Affairs Blog | 07.02.2020

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root
Black bodies swinging in the...

Bioethics

Belly of the Beast: California’s dark history of forced sterilizations

By Shilpa Jindia, The Guardian | 06.30.2020

A new documentary film is shedding light on forced sterilizations in California, reviving a dark chapter in the state’s history...

Society

The Future of Bioethics: It Shouldn't Take a Pandemic

By Larry R. Churchill Nancy M. P. King Gail E. Henderson, Hastings Center Report | 06.29.2020

Abstract

The Covid‐19 pandemic has concentrated bioethics attention on the “lifeboat ethics” of rationing and fair allocation of scarce medical...

China cuts Uighur births with IUDs, abortion, sterilization

By AP, Associated Press | 06.28.2020

^{Photo by Marc Curtis from Pexels}

The Chinese government is taking draconian measures to slash birth rates among Uighurs and...

Other Countries

In China, single women are banned from freezing their eggs. Now one woman is fighting for change

By Cecily Huang, ABC [Australia] | 06.27.2020

When Teresa Xu stood in a Beijing courtroom last December to demand equal access to reproductive rights, she knew she...

Assisted Reproduction

A DNA Mix-Up Involving a Washing Machine Kept a Man in Jail for 3 Years

By Heather Murphy, The New York Times | 06.26.2020

As washing machines go, the one that contributed to Roy Verret’s capital murder charge was pretty average. White, Whirlpool, reliable...

Genetic Selection

Two patients die in now-halted study of Audentes gene therapy

By Ben Fidler, BioPharma Dive | 06.26.2020

Dive Brief:

Two children with a rare neuromuscular disease have died after receiving a high dose of a gene therapy...

Human Genetic Modification

Silhouette of hand placing ballot in box

Directors of the California Stem Cell Agency Back $5.5 Billion Stem Cell Ballot Measure -- With One Exception

By David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report | 06.26.2020

Directors of the financially strapped, California stem cell agency this morning endorsed a $5.5 billion bond measure to refinance the...

Policies