News

Bay Area Startups Want to Make Genetically Engineered Babies. What Could Go Wrong?

By Grace Won, KQED [with CGS' Katie Hasson] | 12.02.2025

In the U.S., it’s illegal to edit genes in human embryos with the intention of creating a genetically engineered baby. But according to the Wall Street Journal, Bay Area startups are focused on just that. It wouldn’t be the first...

Genetic Selection

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...

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
willow brook

The Horrors of Hepatitis Research

By Carl Elliott, The New York Review of Books | 11.21.2024

Photo "Traces of Willowbrook" by Matt Green on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

In academic medicine, as with Confederate statuary...

Society
dna graphic

WHO releases new principles for ethical human genomic data collection and sharing

By World Health Organization, World Health Organization | 11.20.2024

The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued a set of principles for the ethical collection, access, use and sharing of...

Policies
Elon Musk

He has already fathered many children. Now Musk wants all of the US to embrace extreme breeding

By Arwa Mahdawi, The Guardian | 11.19.2024

Photo "Elon Musk Presenting Tesla's Fully Autonomous Future" by  on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Is Elon Musk...

Genetic Selection
AI graphic

UN puts AI Titans on the hook for billions of dollars of biopiracy payments

By Jim Thomas, Scan the Horizon | 11.19.2024

It’s the wee hours of 2nd November 2024 in Cali, Colombia. In a large UN negotiating hall   Colombian Environment Minister...

Genomics
crispr graphic on blue background

Ethics changes notwithstanding, creating genetically modified babies is still illegal in SA

By Tamsin Metelerkamp [cites CGS' Katie Hasson], Daily Maverick | 11.18.2024

The National Health Research Ethics Council (NHREC) has confirmed that heritable human genome editing (HHGE) remains illegal in South Africa...

Genetic Selection
reproduction graphics

Emboldened anti-abortion groups create wishlist for second Trump term

By Carter Sherman, The Guardian | 11.17.2024

The anti-abortion movement is ready for its comeback in 2025.

With the return of Donald Trump to the White...

Policies
gene editing graphic

The Legal and Ethical Debate on Human Heritable Genome Editing (HHGE) in South Africa

By Jantina de Vries, EthicsLab | 11.15.2024

The conversation around human heritable genome editing (HHGE) in South Africa is marked by controversy and conflicting interpretations of the...

Other Countries
DNA

Ethics Washing: The Misappropriation of Ubuntu in the Ethics of Heritable Human Genome Editing (HHGE)

By Anye Nyamnjoh, EthicsLab | 11.15.2024

In their argument for equal access to heritable human genome editing (HHGE) as a healthcare service for future generations...

Other Countries