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

The Genes Made Us Do It

By Jonathan Marks, In These Times | 05.12.2014
Untitled Document

Americans reject aspects of science—vaccinations, anthropogenic climate change, evolution—for diverse reasons. Sometimes those reasons are religious, sometimes economic...

Biopolitics

Government to Order Fertility Clinics to Release Donor Information

By Nicole Hasham, The Sydney Morning Herald | 05.11.2014
Fertility clinics will be forced to hand over information about anonymous sperm donors so children can learn about their genetic...
Bioethics

A Synthetic Biology Conference Lures an Intriguing Audience

By John Markoff, The New York Times | 05.09.2014
Untitled Document

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — When does a scientific conference warrant the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and...

Biotech & Pharma

Don’t Shut the Door on the Synthetic Biology Debate

By Jack Stilgoe, The Guardian | 05.08.2014
The Inter-Academy Panel, a network of the world’s science academies including our own Royal Society, today issued a statement...
Environmentalism

Dolly the Sheep’s Clones Deemed Unpatentable by U.S. Court

By Susan Decker, Bloomberg | 05.08.2014

The Scottish scientists famous for concocting “Dolly” the sheep lost a bid to get U.S. patent protection for the cloned...

U.S. Federal

Counsyl Gets Funding for New Genetic Tests

By Stephanie M. Lee, San Francisco Chronicle | 05.08.2014

No genetic test is needed to predict a bright future for Counsyl.

Armed with $28 million in new venture capital, the...

Biotech & Pharma

Scientists Add Letters to DNA’s Alphabet, Raising Hope and Fear

By Andrew Pollack, The New York Times | 05.07.2014

Scientists reported Wednesday that they had taken a significant step toward altering the fundamental alphabet of life — creating an...

Bioethics

Their Foremothers’ Daughters

By Helen Chernikoff, The Jewish Week | 05.07.2014
‘Give me children or I shall die,” said Rachel to her husband Jacob, speaking for many women of the Bible...
Human Genetic Modification