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 young baby is fully dressed and sits in front of a laptop, interacting with the keyboard.

Designer babies: an ethical horror waiting to happen?

By Philip Ball, The Guardian | 01.08.2017

Comfortably seated in the fertility clinic with Vivaldi playing softly in the background, you and your partner are brought coffee...

Human Genetic Modification
Globe featuring the continent of Asia, with transnational arrows.

Philippine police arrest surrogate mothers-to-be in human trafficking crackdown

By Lindsay Murdoch, Sydney Morning Herald | 01.04.2017

Bangkok: A "human trafficking syndicate" has been hiring Filipino women to travel to Cambodia to carry surrogacy babies for foreigners...

Assisted Reproduction
A water droplet falls into a larger pool of liquid, leaving behind ripples to the surface.

Rewriting the Code of Life

By Michael Specter, New Yorker | 01.02.2017

Early on an unusually blustery day in June, Kevin Esvelt climbed aboard a ferry at Hyannis*, bound for...

Human Genetic Modification
A wooden-like figure of a child builds a colorful tower of blocks. The child sits in a background surrounded by white and black checkered flooring.

2016 Fear vs Hope: Gene Editing— Terrible turning point?

By Pete Shanks, Deccan Chronicle | 01.01.2017

The next year may represent our best chance to prevent the rise of a modern, uncontrolled and dangerously ill-considered techno-eugenics...

Human Genetic Modification
Black and white photo of a young baby looking out distantly.

Unexpected Risks Found In Replacing DNA To Prevent Inherited Disorders

By Jill Neimark, NPR | 01.01.2017

In September, reproductive endocrinologist John Zhang and his team at the New Hope Fertility Center in New York City captured...

Human Genetic Modification
Illustrated image of a DNA molecule.

China’s $9 billion effort to beat the U.S. in genetic testing

By Ylan Q. Mui, Washington Post, [cites CGS's Marcy Darnovsky] | 12.30.2016

Lindsay Weekes knew something was wrong as soon as her son was born.

Her pregnancy had been easy. The baby...

Genomics
Colorful DNA stains are displayed side by side.

Will the Alt-Right Promote a New Kind of Racist Genetics?

By Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic | 12.29.2016

Jedidiah Carlson was googling a genetics research paper when he stumbled upon the white nationalist forum Stormfront. Carlson is a...

Genomics
Clock with both hands pointed near the midnight hour.

UC Davis professor wants FDA to create firm guidelines for stem-cell treatments, put clinics on notice

By Claudia Buck, Sacramento Bee | 12.24.2016

Adding year-end urgency to the national debate over stem cells, a prominent UC Davis researcher is asking federal officials to...

Stem Cells