News

A Chinese scientist horrified the world in 2018 when he revealed he had secretly engineered the birth of the world's first gene-edited babies.

His work was reviled as reckless and unethical because, among other reasons, gene-editing was so new...

INTRODUCTION

Baby bonuses. Motherhood medals. Fertility tracking. You may have heard of these policy proposals as solutions from the Trump administration to help encourage women to have more children.

Besides falling short of ensuring that people have what they need...

Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at
National Human Genome Research Institute

Recently, media outlets around the world have been reporting on...

A newly available kind of genetic testing, called polygenic embryo screening, promises to screen for conditions that can include cancer...

Black and white photo displaying two police motor bikes.
By Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic | 03.27.2017

Bioethicists studying a small program in Dallas were surprised by what they found.

Sara Katsanis, a bioethicist at Duke University...

Human hands hold up a crystal ball to the sky, reflecting the blue sky with clouds and city buildings.
By Aaron Dy, Public Library of Science | 03.27.2017

Synthetic biology is moving at a rapid pace, and regulations will need to keep up to allow useful technologies to...

Forensic scientist, clothed in protective gear, goggles, and gloves, holds a vile at eye level and looks fixated at the object.
By Nature | 03.27.2017

Behind closed doors this week, the German federal justice ministry has been discussing whether to hand police a powerful new...

Landscape photo of a corn field, with blue sky in the background.
By Philip Blenkinsop, Reuters | 03.27.2017

A majority of EU countries voted on Monday against allowing two new genetically modified crops to be grown in Europe...

Shadow of a pregnant woman standing.
By Associated Press | 03.27.2017

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a northeast Florida woman has pleaded guilty to smuggling a Mexican woman into...

A woman's torso is shown laying on her side. She wears a white shirt and black pants. Hand is gently placed on the bottom of stomach.
By Jessica Hamzelou, New Scientist | 03.27.2017

Two women thought to be infertile have become pregnant using a technique that seems to rejuvenate ovaries, New Scientist can...

Inside a doctor's empty office.
By Jo MacFarlane, Daily Mail | 03.25.2017

A fertility treatment promoted as a more natural form of IVF is successful in just one in ten cases, leading...

Close up of a statue of Themis, the Greek Goddess of Justice, holding a scale in one hand. Sunshine falls and creates shadows in the statue crevices.
By César Palacios-González and María de Jesús Medina-Arellano, Oxford University Press | 03.24.2017

The birth of the the first child after a mitochondrial replacement technique has raised questions about the legality of such...