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...

Strands of DNA cut in two places
By Emily Mullin, Medium | 11.25.2019

Around this time last November, Chinese scientist He Jiankui stunned the world when he revealed the birth of the first...

swab used in a home DNA test
By Ed Cara, Gizmodo | 11.20.2019

At the start of this decade, the federal government called out consumer DNA testing as a burgeoning scam industry. Little...

A Chinese man in a blue shirt (Dr. He Jiankui)
By Nature Editorial Board, Nature | 11.20.2019

A year ago this week, geneticist He Jiankui made the shocking announcement of the birth of twin girls in China...

mother and child with a backpack leaving house to go to school
By Daniela Wei, K Oanh Ha, and Kristen V Brown, Bloomberg | 11.19.2019

Months after his daughter’s birth in 2017, Chris Jung dropped off a test-tube of her saliva to his company’s genetic...

a little person shakes hands with a politician
By Damian Garde, STAT | 11.18.2019

Scientists have come up with a drug, injected once a day, that appears to make children’s bones grow. To many...

mosquito on a green leaf
By Hidde Boersma and Joost Bastmeijer, The Guardian | 11.18.2019

At 6:30 am five-year-old Osman Balama and his mother reach the state hospital of Bobo-Dioulasso, the second-largest city in Burkina...

close up of a white police officer's hands cuffing a white suspect's wrists
By Kristin Houser, Futurism | 11.11.2019

With just a single warrant, a Florida detective obtained access to the DNA profiles of more than a million people...

gloved hand drops liquid into a vial labeled CRISPR
By Jonathan R. Latham, Salon | 11.10.2019

The opening scene of "Unnatural Selection," a four-part docuseries released recently from Netflix, depicts scientist Jennifer Doudna showing off a...