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...

an illustration of scientists doing construction on a double helix
By Alex Pearlman, MIT Technology Review | 08.30.2019

Citing the tremendous cost of new drugs, an international group of biohackers say they are creating a knockoff of a...

Donald Trump speaking into a microphone
By Hamed Aleaziz, BuzzFeed News | 08.29.2019

The Trump administration wants to enable Customs and Border Protection officials to collect DNA samples from undocumented immigrants in its...

human eggs under a microscope
By Alison Motluk, HeyReprotech! | 08.27.2019

Ten years ago, if you were a woman who had donated eggs, there was a good chance you'd never met...

black and white cow with yellow tags in its ears
By Megan Molteni, WIRED | 08.26.2019

Up until a few months ago, Brazil was all set to create the country’s first herd of genetically dehorned dairy...

track star Usain Bolt holds up a flag after winning a race
By Catherine Taylor, ABC News Australia | 08.24.2019

It's a scene straight out of Gattaca — the 1997 futuristic film in which eugenics is used to breed and...

gloved hand adding pipetting material into a vial labeled CRISPR
By Laura Hercher, The Nation | 08.23.2019

Call it the “ick” factor.

Stories like the 2018 bombshell out of China, of a scientist manipulating embryonic DNA...

close-up image of researcher in a lab
By Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times | 08.23.2019

Proponents of a proposed law allowing women to be paid to donate their eggs for research say it’s all about...

human sperm surrounding an ovum
By Rob Stein, NPR | 08.22.2019

First it was human embryos. Now scientists are trying to develop another way to modify human DNA that can be...