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 pot of boiling water cooks two corns.
By Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post | 06.13.2017

JOHNSTON, Iowa — Green stalks have only just begun to sprout in the test fields where biotech giant DuPont Pioneer is...

Microscopic photo of intracytoplasmic sperm injection.
By Emily Mullin, MIT Technology Review [cites Marcy Darnovsky] | 06.13.2017

A startup called Darwin Life says it will use a controversial fertility technique to help forty-somethings get pregnant for $100,000

...
A test tube rack is filled with test tubes. A gloved hand lifts one of the open test tubes, positioned to read the label.
By Francie Diep, Pacific Standard | 06.12.2017

Advances in DNA profiling bring up some interesting questions.

Despite what procedural dramas might lead you to believe, the DNA...

Three double helices are vertically positioned following each other.
By Kristen V. Brown, Gizmodo | 06.12.2017

When people talk about the gene-editing technology CRISPR, it’s usually accompanied by adjectives like “revolutionary” or “world-changing...

Landscape photo of the US Supreme Court building. with the sun and blue sky above.
By Osagie Obasogie, The Atlantic | 06.12.2017

Fifty years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down state laws banning interracial marriage, but the issues involved in the

...
Hall displaying several Nobel Prize Laureates.
By Kat Eschner, Smithsonian Magazine | 06.09.2017

The Repository for Germinal Choice was supposed to produce super-kids from the sperm of white high achievers

Robert Klark Graham...

Several containers, with clear liquid are placed side by side in a test tube rack.
By Charles Piller, STAT | 06.08.2017

Federal investigators searched a California DNA testing lab Wednesday and hauled away boxes of documents as part of a health...

A wall displays letters " ATCG" in various colors.
By Dave Roos, Seeker [cites Marcy Darnovsky] | 06.06.2017

A new study offers a cautionary tale for using the widely hyped gene-editing tool CRISPR on people.

The gene-editing technology...