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
A test tube rack is filled with lab samples. A gloved hand picks up one container among them.

The Privacy Delusions Of Genetic Testing

By Peter Pitts, Forbes | 02.15.2017

Genetic testing promises a revolution in healthcare. With just a few swabs of saliva, diagnostics can provide an unprecedented look...

Biotech & Pharma

Henrietta Lacks' family wants compensation for her cells

By Andrea K. McDaniels, Baltimore Sun | 02.15.2017

The eldest son of Henrietta Lacks wants compensation from the Johns Hopkins University and possibly other institutions for the unauthorized...

Patents & Other IP
Screenshot of Titanovo's testing kit advertisement for measuring telomeres as indicators for health information.

The Next Pseudoscience Health Craze Is All About Genetics

By Kristen V. Brown, Gizmodo | 02.15.2017

Recently, Vitaliy Husar received results from a DNA screening that changed his life. It wasn’t a gene that suggested a...

Biotech & Pharma
Two white officers handcuff a young black teen on the side of the police vehicle.

SDPD Finds a Way Around State Law Limiting DNA Collection From Juveniles

By Kelly Davis, Voice of San Diego | 02.15.2017

When it comes to collecting DNA from criminal offenders, California law is especially protective of juveniles.

While 2004’s Proposition 69...

U.S. States
A statue of two male scientists in lab coats. The figures seem to be connected by holding a strand of DNA.

Broad Institute prevails in heated dispute over CRISPR patents

By Sharon Begley, STAT | 02.15.2017

The US patent office ruled on Wednesday that hotly disputed patents on the revolutionary genome-editing technology CRISPR-Cas9 belong to the...

Biotech & Pharma
Far away landscape image of a factory, with smoke pollution. The image is filtered by a green and blue tint.

Is the ‘Anthropocene’ Epoch a Condemnation of Human Interference -- or a Call for More?

By Wesley Yang, New York Magazine | 02.14.2017

Perhaps you’ve noticed, amid the hot invective and dry mockery of daily events in your social-media feeds, reports of the...

Environmentalism
Embryo, with 5 visible cells.

Scientific Panel Says Editing Heritable Human Genes Could Be OK In The Future

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites Marcy Darnovsky] | 02.14.2017

Scientists could be allowed to make modifications in human DNA that can be passed down through subsequent generations, the National...

Bioethics
A male lab technician in a red coat and a blue face mask sits at a desk. He is concentrated on inserting a sample of DNA from a pipette into a test tube. A test tube rack is placed on his desk along with a hazardous waste basket and other equipment.

Conflicting Views on a Wider Police Use of DNA

By Eli Rosenberg, The New York Times | 02.10.2017

The question of how widely investigators should be able to examine DNA databases is in the news, as officials in...

U.S. States