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

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