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

How a Billionaire’s ‘Baby Project’ Ensnared Dozens of Women

By Jackie Davalos and Sophie Alexander, Bloomberg | 12.02.2024

^{Photo by CDC on Unsplash}

As Anya walked into the fertility clinic for an appointment to have her eggs retrieved...

U.S. States

An I.V.F. Mix-Up, a Shocking Discovery and an Unbearable Choice

By Susan Dominus, The New York Times | 11.30.2024

In the days after Daphna Cardinale delivered her second child, she experienced a rare sense of calm and wonder. The...

Assisted Reproduction

FDA probes blood cancer risk from Bluebird’s gene therapy, weighs regulatory action

By Christy Santhosh, Reuters | 11.27.2024

Nov 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is weighing the need for regulatory action on bluebird bio's ...

Genomics

Silicon Valley’s tech elite want to make superbabies. They shouldn’t

By Julia Brown and Daphne Martschenko, The San Francisco Standard | 11.23.2024

“Pronatalist” parents like Simone and Malcolm Collins want it all: optimized babies – lots of them.

To achieve this goal...

Genetic Selection

Who should get a uterus transplant? Experts aren’t sure.

By Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review | 11.22.2024

Earlier this year, a boy in Sweden celebrated his 10th birthday. Reproductive scientists and doctors marked the occasion too. This...

Assisted Reproduction

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

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

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 Steve Jurvetson on Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)}

Is Elon Musk...

Genetic Selection