News

Developments in gene-editing technology raise new ethical questions

By [cites CGS' Katie Hasson], KCBS Radio | 11.19.2025

This is Ask An Expert, where every weekday at 9:20am, KCBS Radio is giving you direct access to top experts in various fields. Today: Gene-editing technology allows scientists to work with DNA in unprecedented ways, but there are larger scientific...

U.S. Federal

Genetically Engineered Babies Are Banned. Tech Titans Are Trying to Make One Anyway.

By Emily Glazer, Katherine Long, Amy Dockser Marcus, The Wall Street Journal | 11.08.2025

For months, a small company in San Francisco has been pursuing a secretive project: the birth of a genetically engineered baby.

Backed by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and his husband, along with Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, the startup—called...

Genetic Selection

Who Gets to Procreate and Parent? A Black Feminist Critique of the Pronatalist Agenda

By Jallicia A. Jolly, Sydney Curtis and Nicole Sessions, Ms. Magazine | 10.17.2025

Pronatalism is an old idea with roots in eugenics and nationalism, that is now fashionable among far-right influencers and policymakers. They talk...

U.S. Federal

Does One Size Fit All?

By Jay S. Kaufman, Los Angeles Review of Books | 09.27.2025

This is the 10th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring...

Society
Woman lying in hospital bed

I’m disabled and need a ventilator to live. Am I expendable during this pandemic?

By Alice Wong, Vox | 04.04.2020

It is a strange time to be alive as an Asian American disabled person who uses a ventilator. The coronavirus...

Society
Californians for Cures logo

Final Cyberspace Dash Underway for $5.5 Billion California Stem Cell Initiative

By David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report | 04.03.2020

The campaign to save California's stem cell research program from financial extinction is making an "unprecedented," electronic sprint to gather...

Stem Cells
Person in a wheelchair

Americans With Disabilities Are Terrified

By Elaine Godfrey, The Atlantic | 04.03.2020

Many Americans are anxious about contracting the novel coronavirus. Daniel Florio is absolutely terrified.

The 50-year-old lawyer from Maplewood, New...

New York State Legalizes Gestational Surrogacy

By Matt Tracy, Gay City News | 04.02.2020

A protracted battle over the future of compensated gestational surrogacy in New York was resolved on April 2 when state...

Assisted Reproduction

Unproven Stem Cell Therapy Gets OK for Testing in Coronavirus Patients

By Katie Thomas, New York Times | 04.02.2020

An experimental stem cell therapy derived from human placentas will begin early testing in patients with the coronavirus, a New...

Stem Cells
Mother and baby

How Coronavirus Is Affecting Surrogacy, Foster Care and Adoption

By David Dodge, New York Times | 04.01.2020

Covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, has upended life for those who are or hope to become...

Reproductive Justice, Health & Rights

The Coronavirus Pandemic Is Settling Some Old Arguments About Ableism

By Andrew Pulrang, Forbes | 03.30.2020

A long-time, low-grade worry for people with disabilities has become a red alert in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic...

Bioethics
Image of DNA being edited

Potential Inequities in New Medical Technologies

By Eric B. Kmiec and Jonathan Marron, Scientific American | 03.28.2020

As headline-catching new technologies emerge—like tools to “edit” our DNA—researchers, doctors, patients and the general public are excited about the...

Society