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...

A patient looks through an eye doctor's instrument, which covers their face almost completely.
By Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic | 12.27.2017

Some blind people are questioning how the first gene therapy to treat inherited blindness has been valued.

Among blind people...

A person in a lab coat and gloved hands uses tongs to life up a bottle that has been stored in cryopreservation
By Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic | 12.21.2017

Emma Wren Gibson, frozen as an embryo in 1992, was born a few days after Thanksgiving in 2017, more than...

An eight-cell embryo
By Henry Zwartz, ABC News | 12.20.2017

A central Tasmanian sperm and egg donor register is being recommended after a parliamentary committee heard of the "distress and...

Close up of a brown mouse against a solid white background
By Kristen V. Brown, Gizmodo | 12.20.2017

Genetic engineering offers the promise of treating genetic disorders by correcting disease-causing DNA, but when the defective genes are located...

Close up of a mouse
By Rob Stein, NPR | 12.20.2017

Scientists have now edited genes inside mice to prevent a form of inherited deafness.

While cautioning that much more research...

FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb stands behind a podium
By Laurie McGinley, Washington Post | 12.19.2017

In a historic move, the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a pioneering gene therapy for a rare form...

Wall display featuring large letters of ATCG in various colors. Behind, they are illuminated by a light.
By Nikhil Reddy, Huffington Post | 12.18.2017

Imagine you’re having a child in the near future, and with the vast trove of gene-editing technologies that have surfaced...

Two women are pictured holding a protest sign stating, "The future is feminist"
By Francine Coeytaux, Marcy Darnovsky, Susan Berke Fogel, and Emily Galpern, International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics Blog | 12.18.2017

This commentary was originally published on the IJFAB Blog.

For more than a decade, Canadian regulation has explicitly countered...