News

The quest to create gene-edited babies gets a reboot

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 08.06.2025

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...

Genetic Selection

Baby Bonuses and Motherhood Medals: Why We Shouldn’t Trust the Pronatalist Movement

By Staff, National Women's Law Center | 08.13.2025

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...

Human Genetic Modification

We Don’t Know if the Babies Born From Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy Will Still Develop Mitochondrial Disease

By Katherine Drabiak, Journal of Medical Ethics Forum | 08.07.2025

^{Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at

National Human Genome Research Institute}

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

Assisted Reproduction

Can doctors test embryos for autism? And should they?

By Brittany Luse, Liam McBain, and Neena Pathak, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.28.2025

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

Genetic Selection

Ethics Washing: The Misappropriation of Ubuntu in the Ethics of Heritable Human Genome Editing (HHGE)

By Anye Nyamnjoh, EthicsLab | 11.15.2024

In their argument for equal access to heritable human genome editing (HHGE) as a healthcare service for future generations...

Other Countries

Elon Musk Has Always Been Like This. So Has Silicon Valley.

By Colette Shade, The New Republic | 11.14.2024

^{Photo "Elon Musk" by Daniel Oberhaus on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)}

Would Donald Trump have won reelection if not for...

Policies

Kennedy’s F.D.A. Wish List: Raw Milk, Stem Cells, Heavy Metals

By Christina Jewett, The New York Times | 11.12.2024

^{"Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. speaking with supporters at a campaign rally at Legends Event Center in Phoenix, Arizona."...}

U.S. Federal

Fertility agencies accused of promoting eugenics with embryo selection

By Ewan Bolton, The Telegraph | 11.12.2024

Fertility agencies offering embryo selection for IVF and surrogacy have been accused of promoting eugenics and misleading consumers about the...

Genetic Selection

Opening the Door to ‘Designer Babies’? South Africa’s Genome Editing Guidelines Spark Global Debate

By Bernice Lottering, Gene Online | 11.08.2024

South Africa’s updated health-research ethics guidelines, which now include heritable human genome editing, have sparked concern among scientists. The revisions...

Assisted Reproduction