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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...

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...

Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.

"These are saliva...

"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of...

young girl stands in front of a window with back to camera
By Dan Samorodnitsky, VICE | 01.24.2020

It’s tempting to see genes everywhere, lurking in every shadow. For geneticists trying to understand a disease, or Bret Stephens...

a boy in a blue hoodie stands behind a cyclone fence
By Daniel I. Morales, Natalie Ram and Jessica L. Roberts, The New York Times | 01.23.2020

What if the United States government took the DNA of vast numbers of Americans for use without their consent? The...

23andMe test packaging, green with green, blue, and red accents
By Rani Molla, Vox | 01.23.2020

23andMe, the popular DNA testing company, is laying off about 100 employees or 14 percent of its workforce as consumer...

close-up photo of a researcher wearing safety glasses
By Rob Stein, NPR | 01.15.2020

Researchers have conducted a controversial study that involved paying dozens of young women at a hospital near Puerto Vallarta, Mexico...

circular graphic representing a human genome
By Krishanu Saha, J. Benjamin Hurlbut & Sheila Jasanoff , Scientific American | 01.15.2020

In November 2018, a Chinese scientist, He Jiankui, caused an international uproar by announcing the birth of two babies whose...

photo of a world cloud
By Katie Hasson and Marcy Darnovsky, Development Journal | 01.14.2020

As genetic technologies merge with forensics, medicine, and human reproduction, renewed eugenic temptations are arising. The prospect of heritable genetic...

A Border Patrol agent takes a man into custody
By The Washington Post Editorial Board, The Washington Post | 01.11.2020

News this month that the U.S. government would start collecting DNA from people detained at the border seemed to sketch...

Universityofmichiganlibrary
By Alison Donahue, Michigan Advance | 01.09.2020

In 2016, Virginia-based immigration lawyer Hassan Ahmad sent the University of Michigan a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to...