News

Palantir Has a Hand in NIH’s Most Ambitious Health Initiative

By Julia Métraux, Mother Jones [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 07.07.2026

During his 2015 State of the Union address, then-President Barack Obama announced what he promised would be an ambitious public health project. “Tonight, I’m launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes...

U.S. Federal

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

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...

Genetic Selection

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
Chinese baby with nurse

Stranded babies, sobbing parents: Pandemic splits surrogates from families

By Agence France-Presse, Japan Times | 09.22.2020

Photo by 东旭 王 on Unsplash

BEIJING – Cherry Lin wistfully strokes a one-piece baby outfit, fretting it may be too...

Assisted Reproduction

The slippery slope of the human gene editing debate

By John Evans, Oxford University Press Blog | 09.22.2020

The ethical debate about what is now called “human gene editing” (HGE) began sixty years ago. At the time, eugenicist...

Society
Donald trump at a campaign rally

Trump’s eugenics obsession: He thinks he has “good German genes,” because he’s a fascist

By Heather Digby Parton, Salon | 09.21.2020

"Donald Trump speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at the Prescott Valley Event Center in Prescott Valley, Arizona" by...

Society
A candle-lit memorial for RGB

The forgotten time Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought against forced sterilization

By Ria Tabacco Mar, The Washington Post | 09.19.2020

Photo by Gayatri Malhotra on Unsplash

My mind immediately went to Ruth Bader Ginsburg as I read the breaking news...

Society
An embryonic stem cell

Should California Put $5.5 Billion Into Stem Cell Research? Voters To Decide With Prop. 14.

By Sammy Caiola, CapRadio [cites Center for Genetics and Society] | 09.18.2020

A measure on the November ballot would allow California to issue $5.5 billion in bonds to fund stem cell research...

Policies
Vaccination

Scientists are working on vaccines that spread like a disease. What could possibly go wrong?

By Filippa Lentzos, Guy Reeves, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists | 09.18.2020

Once a COVID-19 vaccine is approved for public use, officials around the world will face the monumental challenge of vaccinating...

Synthetic Biology
Human egg with cells in the form of a question mark

Why we need a global citizens’ assembly on gene editing

By Nicole Curato and Simon Niemeyer, The Conversation | 09.17.2020

Developments in gene editing are often met with moral panic. Every new announcement raises outrage over the audacity of scientists...

Policies

California Stem Cell Measure Scrutinized in Virus Budget Crunch

By Joyce E. Cutler and Tiffany Stecker, Bloomberg Government | 09.17.2020

California voters will be asked this November to spend big on stem cell research, an expensive proposition that could help...

Policies