News

Developments in gene-editing technology raise new ethical questions

By [cites CGS' Katie Hasson], KCBS Radio | 11.19.2025

This is Ask An Expert, where every weekday at 9:20am, KCBS Radio is giving you direct access to top experts in various fields. Today: Gene-editing technology allows scientists to work with DNA in unprecedented ways, but there are larger scientific...

U.S. Federal

Genetically Engineered Babies Are Banned. Tech Titans Are Trying to Make One Anyway.

By Emily Glazer, Katherine Long, Amy Dockser Marcus, The Wall Street Journal | 11.08.2025

For months, a small company in San Francisco has been pursuing a secretive project: the birth of a genetically engineered baby.

Backed by OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and his husband, along with Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, the startup—called...

Genetic Selection

Who Gets to Procreate and Parent? A Black Feminist Critique of the Pronatalist Agenda

By Jallicia A. Jolly, Sydney Curtis and Nicole Sessions, Ms. Magazine | 10.17.2025

Pronatalism is an old idea with roots in eugenics and nationalism, that is now fashionable among far-right influencers and policymakers. They talk...

U.S. Federal

Does One Size Fit All?

By Jay S. Kaufman, Los Angeles Review of Books | 09.27.2025

This is the 10th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring...

Society

Street art illustrating a double helix. In between there appears human hands as if imprisoned by the strands.

Familial DNA testing OK'd by state forensics sub-panel

By Anthony O'Reilly, Queens Chronicle | 03.27.2017

The DNA subcommittee of the state Commission on Forensic Science Monday unanimously approved the use of familial testing in New...

U.S. States

Black and white photo displaying two police motor bikes.

Collecting DNA From Sex Workers to One Day Identify Their Bodies

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...

Bioethics

Human hands hold up a crystal ball to the sky, reflecting the blue sky with clouds and city buildings.

Can a new model help governance keep up with synthetic biology?

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...

Global Governance

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

Germany considers wider use of DNA evidence in criminal cases

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...

Other Countries

Landscape photo of a corn field, with blue sky in the background.

EU nations vote against GM crops, but not enough to block them

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...

Other Countries

Woman Guilty of Smuggling Woman for Surrogacy, Forced Labor

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...

Human Rights

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.

Menopausal women become pregnant with their own eggs

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...

Reproductive Justice, Health & Rights

IVF treatment promoted as more 'natural' fails in 90% of cases despite costing £3,000, expert warns

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...

Reproductive Justice, Health & Rights