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During his 2015 State of the Union address, then-President Barack Obama announced what he promised would be an ambitious public health project. “Tonight, I’m launching a new Precision Medicine Initiative to bring us closer to curing diseases like cancer and diabetes...

This is the 15th 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. You can read the first part here. The series...

Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.

"These are saliva...

"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of...

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...

Three diploid chromosomes
By Carolyn Abraham, The Globe and Mail | 02.03.2018

Ever since DNA was first used in 1986 to catch a killer, it's swashbuckled its way through society as an almost infallible...

Wooden gravel with faded grey background
By Japan Times, Japan Times | 02.02.2018

Lawyers in five cities set up telephone counseling hotlines Friday for individuals who were forced into sterilization or affected by...