News

Developments in gene-editing technology raise new ethical questions

By [cites CGS' Katie Hasson], KCBS Radio | 11.19.2025

This is Ask An Expert, where every weekday at 9:20am, KCBS Radio is giving you direct access to top experts in various fields. Today: Gene-editing technology allows scientists to work with DNA in unprecedented ways, but there are larger scientific...

U.S. Federal

Genetically Engineered Babies Are Banned. Tech Titans Are Trying to Make One Anyway.

By Emily Glazer, Katherine Long, Amy Dockser Marcus, The Wall Street Journal | 11.08.2025

For months, a small company in San Francisco has been pursuing a secretive project: the birth of a genetically engineered baby.

Backed by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and his husband, along with Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, the startup—called...

Genetic Selection

Who Gets to Procreate and Parent? A Black Feminist Critique of the Pronatalist Agenda

By Jallicia A. Jolly, Sydney Curtis and Nicole Sessions, Ms. Magazine | 10.17.2025

Pronatalism is an old idea with roots in eugenics and nationalism, that is now fashionable among far-right influencers and policymakers. They talk...

U.S. Federal

Does One Size Fit All?

By Jay S. Kaufman, Los Angeles Review of Books | 09.27.2025

This is the 10th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring...

Society

Treating ‘genetic privacy’ like it’s just one thing keeps us from understanding people’s concerns

By Angela Chen, The Verge | 10.31.2018

“Genetic privacy” is a complicated concept, and a new study finds that decoding how people feel about the idea is...

Genomics

He Promised to Restore Damaged Hearts. Harvard Says His Lab Fabricated Research.

By Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 10.29.2018

For Dr. Piero Anversa, the fall from scientific grace has been long, and the landing hard.

Researchers worldwide once hailed...

Stem Cells

Blue, pink and white transgender flag flying

Trump’s Anti-Trans Memo Opens Door to Escalating State Surveillance

By Christoph Hanssmann, TruthOut | 10.27.2018

The Trump administration’s proposed scheme to redefine sex as “a biological, immutable condition determined by genitalia at birth” is not...

U.S. Federal

Use the patent system to regulate gene editing

By Shobita Parthasarathy, Nature | 10.23.2018

Next month, researchers, policymakers, ethicists and social scientists will meet in Hong Kong for the second International Summit on Human...

Policies

Sociogenomics is opening a new door to eugenics

By Nathaniel Comfort, MIT Technology Review | 10.23.2018

Want to predict aggression? Neuroticism? Risk aversion? Authoritarianism? Academic achievement? This is the latest promise from the burgeoning field of...

Two Native American geneticists interpret Elizabeth Warren’s DNA test

By Krystal Tsosie and Matthew Anderson, The Conversation | 10.22.2018

Dr. Carlos Bustamante, a prominent population geneticist, recently concluded that Senator Elizabeth Warren had “a Native American ancestor.” While geneticists...

Perspectives

Designer babies aren’t futuristic. They’re already here.

By Laura Hercher, MIT Technology Review | 10.22.2018

At first, Matthew assumed the weakness in his knee was the sort of orthopedic nuisance that happens when you turn...

Assisted Reproduction

White-people-only DNA tests show how unequal science has become

By Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review | 10.18.2018

The DNA testing company Color Genomics says that early next year it will offer customers a new type of gene...

Genomics