News

Surrogacy goes more mainstream

By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Emily Galpern] | 03.29.2026

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...

U.S. Federal

Eugenics and the Modern Synthesis, Part I

By Jessica Riskin, Los Ángeles Review of Books | 03.23.2026

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...

Civil Society

Surrogacy laws are all over the map

By Carly Mallenbaum, Axios [cites Surrogacy360] | 03.29.2026

Without a federal law, surrogacy in the U.S. is governed by a patchwork of state regulations/

Why it matters: Confusing...

Policies

Project Eugenics: The Rollback of Disability Rights

By Kiana Jackson and Shannon Stubblefield, New Disabled South | 02.09.2026

"MC0_8230" via Wikimedia Commons licensed under CC by 2.0 

This report documents a deliberate assault on disabled people in...

U.S. States
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
Illustrative painting of a woolly mammoth in a green, lush landscape, and a blue sky.

How mammoth cloning became fake news

By John Hawks, Medium Science | 02.09.2017

George Church, artificial wombs, elephant embryos, and a gullible science media

According to the Guardian, New Scientist, and many...

Media Coverage
Three empty hospital beds are shown in a dimly lit room.

Eugenics and the outer limits of good breeding

By Juliana Edelman, The Irish Times | 02.09.2017

It hasn’t gone away, you know: Victorian junk science has its race-baiting adherents

When I teach Irish university students about ...

Other Countries
A lab scientist views a petri dish that is illuminated by a microscope light.

Could we one day make babies from only skin cells?

By Kelly Murray, CNN | 02.09.2017

In the not-so-distant future, research suggests, eggs and sperm may no longer be needed to make a baby -- at...

Bioethics