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

Calif. Prison Doctor Linked to Sterilizations no Stranger to Controversy

By Corey G. Johnson, The Center for Investigative Reporting | 02.13.2014
A prison doctor investigated by the California medical board after ordering tubal ligations without state approval is responsible for hundreds...
Eugenics

Ancient Genome Stirs Ethics Debate

By Ewen Callaway, Nature | 02.12.2014
The remains of a young boy, ceremonially buried some 12,600 years ago in Montana, have revealed the ancestry of one...
Racial Justice

Rewriting the Human Genome

By Susan Young, MIT Technology Review | 02.12.2014
Over the last decade, as DNA-sequencing technology has grown ever faster and cheaper, our understanding of the human genome has...
Bioethics

Why Easy Stem Cells Raise Hard Ethical Questions

By Brendan Foht, The Public Discourse | 02.11.2014
Late last month, Haruko Obokata and her colleagues at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe, Japan reported that...
Bioethics

Google's Kurzweil Says the Machines will Think for Themselves by 2040, and oh — We'll be Immortal

By Jon Xavier, Silicon Valley Business Journal | 02.10.2014
Google engineering director Ray Kurzweil is, undoubtedly, one of the most accomplished men of our time. The relentless inventor —...
A "Post-Human" Future?

Why Family Caregivers Should Care for their Families' Genetic Inheritance Data

By Dr. Gordon Atherley, Voice America | 02.10.2014
Marcy Darnovsky, PhD, is Executive Director of the Center for Genetics and Society. Jeff Nisker, MD PhD FRCSC...
Bioethics

Questions Relating to 'Mitochondrial Replacement'

By Calum MacKellar, BioNews | 02.10.2014
Untitled Document

In his response (BioNews 738) to the article 'Should persons affected by mitochondrial disorders not be...

Bioethics

Let’s Keep the Door to Biotechnological Eugenics Closed

By Enola Aird, MomsRising | 02.10.2014
Remember the three-parent babies I told you about in December?  The ones made with genetic material from two different women? ...
Assisted Reproduction