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...

Buildings in Kiev, Ukraine
By Kevin Ponniah, BBC | 02.13.2018

Ukraine, one of Europe's poorest nations, is fast becoming the place to go for people desperate to find a surrogate...

Close-up view of microscope lens
By Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic | 02.12.2018

BOSTON—Out on an old Navy dry dock, a biotech company called Ginkgo Bioworks is growing genetically modified organisms by the...

A calculator and eye glasses rest on piles of paper
By Paul Kleutghen, David Mitchell, Aaron S. Kesselheim, Mehdi Najafzadeh, and Ameet Sarpatwari, HealthAffairs | 02.08.2018

In a system in which life-saving drugs are developed with direct and indirect taxpayer support and afforded market protection through ...

Pencil above DNA strand (pencil represents gene editing)
By Matthew Herper, Forbes | 02.07.2018

Jim Wilson has been one of gene therapy's pioneers. Now he's raising concerns about the safety of a technology he...

A symbol for cryptocurrrency Bitcoin is shown as a coin falling against a solid black background.
By Emily Mullin, MIT Technology Review | 02.07.2018

People will be able to earn cryptocurrency in exchange for letting pharma companies use their data.

Cryptocurrency in exchange for...

Toddler not looking at camera
By Sarah Elizabeth Richards, Smithsonian | 02.05.2018

Genomics is cheaper and more available then ever, but its usefulness for parents has yet to be proven

Before Cheryl...

Light blue sterile operating room
By The Japan Times, The Japan Times Editorial | 02.03.2018

A damages lawsuit filed by a woman forcibly sterilized under the now-defunct Eugenic Protection Law should prompt the government to...

Indian woman sitting on bed holding a baby surrounded by two other Indian women
By Olinda Timms, The Wire | 02.03.2018

As one country responds with a ban on commercial surrogacy, the market just shifts to the next unregulated destination. An...