News

Surrogacy goes more mainstream

By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Emily Galpern] | 03.29.2026

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...

U.S. Federal

Eugenics and the Modern Synthesis, Part I

By Jessica Riskin, Los Ángeles Review of Books | 03.23.2026

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...

Civil Society

Surrogacy laws are all over the map

By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Surrogacy360] | 03.29.2026

Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations/

Why it matters: Confusing...

Policies

Project Eugenics: The Rollback of Disability Rights

By Kiana Jackson and Shannon Stubblefield, New Disabled South | 02.09.2026

^{"MC0_8230" via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by 2.0}

This report documents a deliberate assault on disabled people in...

U.S. States

Fascist Population Engineering: Yes to White Christian Births, No to Immigrants and LGBTQ Families

By Ruth Ben-Ghiat, Lucid | 05.02.2025

^{Photo of JD Vance and Giorgia Meloni from the

Office of the Vice President of the United States}

$5000 bonuses...

Bioethics

A photograph of Judith Heumann, as a panelist, ready to speak

A New Eugenics Wave: Trying to Make Disability and Disease Disappear

By Elayne Clift, Daily Kos | 05.01.2025

^{Photo of Judy Heumann by Taylordw,

CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons}

Back in the 1980s when I...

Society

Could gene therapy improve my life as an adult with sickle cell?

By Oluwatosin Adesoye, Sickle Cell Disease News | 04.30.2025

Several weeks ago, when news of the first sickle cell disease patient to be cured by gene therapy went viral...

Biotech & Pharma

How MAGA's obsession with ‘pronatalism’ is harmful to the LGBTQ+ community

By Ariel Messman-Rucker, Pride | 04.30.2025

Family values conservatives have been obsessed with heterosexual marriages and babies for decades. They have fought to curtail women’s rights...

Society

Spain bans its embassies from registering babies born through surrogacy

By Aitor Hernandez-Morales, Politico | 04.30.2025

^{Flag of Spain, public domain via wikimedia commons}

The Spanish government is banning its embassies and consulates from registering children...

Policies

Will Utah Compensate Victims of Forced Sterilization?

By Jonathan Michels, Jacobin | 04.29.2025

In 2018, Dr James Tabery watched a documentary about North Carolina’s eugenics program and the fraught effort to financially compensate...

Society

Genetic medicine can leave people with rare mutations behind. But there’s new hope

By Laura Ungar, Associated Press | 04.26.2025

Emily Kramer-Golinkoff can’t get enough oxygen with each breath. Advanced cystic fibrosis makes even simple things like walking or showering...

Human Genetic Modification

Simone and Malcolm Collins with children

They say they want Americans to have more babies. What’s beneath the surface?

By Lisa Hagen, NPR | 04.25.2025

^{The Collins Family, by TeggorMindFish, CC 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons}

“Humanity is dying,” billionaire Elon Musk told Fox News anchor...

U.S. Federal