News

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...

Several baby blocks are scattered on a hardwood floor, with a baby's feet in the background.
By Sarah Michael Hollenbeck, Shondaland | 10.03.2017

This essay has been condensed. It can (and should) be read in its entirety in "Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance...

A bird's eye view of a spiraling staircase cascading downward.
By Malihe Razazan, KALW's Your Call [features Marcy Darnovsky] | 10.03.2017

CRISPR, the powerful gene editing technique that enables the precise modification of genes, is revolutionizing medicine and biotechnology. It can...

Microscopic image of in vitro fertilization procedure in which a single sperm is injected directly into an egg
By Françoise Baylis, The Conversation | 10.01.2017

For several years, scientists have experimented on human embryos with a powerful genome editing tool called CRISPR to see if...

Block letters ATCG are positioned in a line, wtih one of the A letters in front, appearing to be erased.
By James Gallagher, BBC | 09.28.2017

Precise "chemical surgery" has been performed on human embryos to remove disease in a world first, Chinese researchers have told...

A male doctor examines a pregnant woman's exposed stomach as she lays does on a hospital bed.
By Alana Cattapan and Françoise Baylis, The Conversation | 09.27.2017

Health Canada recently sought public input into new regulations for the use of assisted human reproduction. The consultation process covered...

Art exhibition featuring a plastic human model, and a colorful DNA model in the background
By Corin Faife, How We Get To Next [cites CGS' Marcy Darnovsky] | 09.26.2017

Editing the human genome has huge potential for improving health — for those who can afford it

Debojyoti Chakraborty smiles at me from...

Kruskal–Szekeres diagram, in which there are four different colored quadrants in a grid. Two opposite quadrants are shaped as hyperbolas.
By Cathy O'neil, Boston Review | 09.25.2017

Have you heard? Someday we will live in a perfect society ruled by an omnipotent artificial intelligence, provably and utterly...