News

The quest to create gene-edited babies gets a reboot

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 08.06.2025

A Chinese scientist horrified the world in 2018 when he revealed he had secretly engineered the birth of the world's first gene-edited babies.

His work was reviled as reckless and unethical because, among other reasons, gene-editing was so new...

Genetic Selection

Baby Bonuses and Motherhood Medals: Why We Shouldn’t Trust the Pronatalist Movement

By Staff, National Women's Law Center | 08.13.2025

INTRODUCTION

Baby bonuses. Motherhood medals. Fertility tracking. You may have heard of these policy proposals as solutions from the Trump administration to help encourage women to have more children.

Besides falling short of ensuring that people have what they need...

Human Genetic Modification

We Don’t Know if the Babies Born From Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy Will Still Develop Mitochondrial Disease

By Katherine Drabiak, Journal of Medical Ethics Forum | 08.07.2025

^{Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at

National Human Genome Research Institute}

Recently, media outlets around the world have been reporting on...

Assisted Reproduction

Can doctors test embryos for autism? And should they?

By Brittany Luse, Liam McBain, and Neena Pathak, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.28.2025

A newly available kind of genetic testing, called polygenic embryo screening, promises to screen for conditions that can include cancer...

Genetic Selection

A Gene-Edited Pig Liver Was Attached to a Person—and Worked for 3 Days

By Emily Mullin, Wired | 01.18.2024

Surgeons at the University of Pennsylvania announced today that they successfully attached a genetically altered pig liver to a brain-dead...

Animal Biotechnologies

Amid post-Roe concerns, Democratic lawmakers introduce bill to protect access to IVF

By Jacqueline Howard, CNN | 01.18.2024

Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation aimed at protecting access to infertility treatments, such as in vitro fertilization, amid growing concern...

Policies

Trump’s dangerous echoes of the eugenics movement

By Paul Moses, CNN | 01.16.2024

^{"Donald Trump Signs The Pledge" by Michael Vadon

is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.}

Last month...

Eugenics

FDA widens approval of Vertex’s CRISPR medicine to treat beta thalassemia

By Ned Pagliarulo, BioPharma Dive | 01.16.2024

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ CRISPR-based medicine Casgevy for the inherited blood condition beta thalassemia, expanding...

Policies