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

The Singularity Prophets

By Benjamin Charles Germain Lee, Current Affairs | 07.23.2020

^{Ray Kurzweil, popularizer of the Singularity}

Once the dust settles, and we look back on the decade that has just ended...

A "Post-Human" Future?

Large DNA Study Traces Violent History of American Slavery

By Christine Kenneally, The New York Times | 07.23.2020

^{Photo by British Library on Unsplash}

More than one and a half centuries after the trans-Atlantic slave trade ended, a...

The Fight for Fertility Equality

By David Kaufman, The New York Times | 07.22.2020

While plenty of New Yorkers have formed families by gestational surrogacy, they almost certainly worked with carriers living elsewhere. Because ...

Policies

Chinese infants born to Chicago-area surrogates are stranded in the U.S. without their parents, due to COVID-19

By Nara Schoenberg, Chicago Tribune | 07.22.2020

^{Photo by Amarnath Tade on Unsplash}

Seven weeks old, with a thoughtful expression and a full head of silky black...

Assisted Reproduction

‘Act of genocide.’ Eugenics program tried to ‘breed out’ Black people in NC, report says

By Hayley Fowler , The News & Observer | 07.22.2020

For more than four decades North Carolina’s statewide eugenics program forcibly sterilized almost 7,600 people — many of whom were...

Society

A Security Breach Exposed More Than One Million DNA Profiles On A Major Genealogy Database

By Peter Aldhous, BuzzFeed News | 07.22.2020

On July 19, genealogy enthusiasts who use the website GEDmatch to upload their DNA information and find relatives to fill...

Genomics

Liberal, progressive — and racist? The Sierra Club faces its white-supremacist history.

By Darryl Fears and Steven Mufson, The Washington Post | 07.22.2020

No one is more important to the history of environmental conservation than John Muir — the “wilderness prophet,” “patron saint...

Media Coverage

Once Science Fiction, Gene Editing Is Now a Looming Reality

By Katie Hafner, The New York Times | 07.22.2020

This article is part of a series exploring how the Americans With Disabilities Act has shaped modern life for people...