News

A Chinese scientist horrified the world in 2018 when he revealed he had secretly engineered the birth of the world's first gene-edited babies.

His work was reviled as reckless and unethical because, among other reasons, gene-editing was so new...

INTRODUCTION

Baby bonuses. Motherhood medals. Fertility tracking. You may have heard of these policy proposals as solutions from the Trump administration to help encourage women to have more children.

Besides falling short of ensuring that people have what they need...

Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at
National Human Genome Research Institute

Recently, media outlets around the world have been reporting on...

A newly available kind of genetic testing, called polygenic embryo screening, promises to screen for conditions that can include cancer...

Quoted text: "I guess we all speak up so frequently on this issue that we’re just waiting for the right thing to happen.”   – Victor Dzau, president of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine
By Rick Berke, STAT | 06.24.2019

Two influential leaders in science for the first time publicly condemned a Russian biologist who said he plans to produce...

Image of CAS9
By Rob Stein, National Public Radio | 06.21.2019

A Russian scientist says he wants to create more genetically modified babies, flouting international objections that such a step would...

Bill McKibben
By Bill Lueders, The Progressive | 06.18.2019

I hope it’s not too late to review Bill McKibben’s important new book Falter, just as I join him...

Filmmaker behind a movie camera
By Erin Allday, San Francisco Chronicle | 06.15.2019

A new documentary about stem cell therapy is being questioned by some of those who appear in it — prominent...

Oocyte with zona pellucida
By Jon Cohen, Science | 06.13.2019

In a bold rejection of the widespread sentiment—and regulations in many countries—that no one should alter the genome of a...

Gloria Steinem speaking in front of an American flag
By Vivian Wang, The New York Times | 06.12.2019

The proposal to legalize surrogacy in New York was presented as an unequivocal progressive ideal, a remedy to a ban...

illustration of many faces having mugshots taken
By Elizabeth Joh, The New York Times | 06.11.2019

Someone broke into a church in Centerville, Utah, last November and attacked the organist who was practicing there. In March...

Egg surrounded by sperm
By Editors, Nature | 06.11.2019

A worldwide debate is under way on how to regulate gene editing in human sperm, eggs or embryos.

A researcher...