News

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...

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...

Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations/

Why it matters: Confusing...

"MC0_8230" via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by 2.0 

This report documents a deliberate assault on disabled people in...

Illustration of scientists constructing DNA
By Sarah Ruth Bates, WBUR Boston | 01.03.2020

Gene-editing technologies have huge potential to alleviate human suffering. But, like all very powerful technologies, they also carry enormous risks...

Artistic rendering of DNA being severed by CRISPR
By Theresa Machemer, Smithsonian Magazine [Cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 12.31.2019

On Monday, a court in Shenzhen sentenced He Jiankui—the scientist who performed CRISPR gene-editing on twin human embryos—to three years...

Gloved hand drops liquid into a vial labeled CRISPR
By Merrit Kennedy, NPR [Cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 12.30.2019

A Chinese scientist who shocked the medical community last year when he said he had illegally created the world's first...

He Jiankui wearing blue shirt
By Sui-Lee Wee, The New York Times | 12.30.2019

A court in China on Monday sentenced He Jiankui, the researcher who shocked the global scientific community when he claimed...

human egg under a microscope
By Sarah Elizabeth Richards, The New York Times | 12.21.2019

The potential for egg freezing to allow women to pause their biological clocks is one of the most astonishing developments...

armadillo
By Sharon Begley, STAT | 12.20.2019

One of the armadillo quadruplets runs away when she hears Amanda Withnell approaching; her three siblings calmly keep their faces...

A doctor holding a clipboard goes over test results with a patient. Only their hands are shown.
By Amy Dockser Marcus, The Wall Street Journal | 12.20.2019

When she was in her early 30s, Katy Mathes decided to check her cancer risk. A genetic test showed a...

four baby piglets sleeping
By Kelly Servick, Science | 12.19.2019

If any swine is fit to be an organ donor for people, then the dozens of pigs snuffling around Qihan...