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

Foreigners Are Flocking To India To Rent Wombs And Grow Surrogate Babies

By Nita Bhalla and Mansi Thapliyal, Reuters | 09.30.2013
ANAND, India, Sept 30 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Dressed in a green surgical gown and cap, British restaurateur Rekha Patel...
Other Countries

California's $70 Million Alpha Stem Cell Clinic Plan Edging Forward

By David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report | 09.30.2013
The $3 billion California stem cell agency is predicting that “human healthcare will be greatly improved” by stem cell research...
Fact Sheets

Studying How The Blind Perceive Race

By Kat Chow, NPR | 09.29.2013

Law professor Osagie Obasogie walked into a movie theater to see "Ray," a biopic about the musician Ray Charles, and...

Public Opinion

30 Years Later, A MacArthur 'Genius' Reflects

By Kat Chow, WGBH News | 09.26.2013

On Wednesday, the MacArthur Foundation announced its newest class of fellows — "geniuses" who have made remarkable contributions to their...

Public Opinion

On Designer Babies

By Sheldon Krimsky, Tufts Medicine, Summer 2013 | 09.25.2013
You may remember a short period in the 1990s when a broad consensus emerged among biologists about the ethics of...
Genetic Selection

Unlicensed Doctor who 'Sold Hope to Patients who had None' Sentenced

By Jeff German, Las Vegas Review-Journal | 09.24.2013
Alfred Sapse, an unlicensed physician described as a “modern-day Dr. Frankenstein,” was sentenced to 17 ½ years in federal prison...
Biotech & Pharma

Gene Therapy With a Difference

By Andrew Pollack, The New York Times | 09.23.2013
Terri Ellsworth is convinced that her 12-year-old son Billy, who has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, is being helped by an experimental...
Bioethics

Wealthy Chinese Seek U.S. Surrogates for Second Child, Green Card

By Alexandra Harney, Reuters | 09.23.2013
Wealthy Chinese are hiring American women to serve as surrogates for their children, creating a small but growing business in...
Assisted Reproduction