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

At the Printer, Living Tissue

By Henry Fountain, The New York Times | 08.18.2013
SAN DIEGO — Someday, perhaps, printers will revolutionize the world of medicine, churning out hearts, livers and other organs to...
Biotech & Pharma

Plants That Glow in the Dark Spark Heated Debate

By Josh Dzieza, The Daily Beast | 08.18.2013
Late last month, the crowdfunding site Kickstarter quietly amended its rules. Genetically modified organisms joined alcohol, drugs, and firearms on...
Genomics

Study Probes DNA Search Method that Led to 'Grim Sleeper' Suspect

By Eryn Brown, Los Angeles Times | 08.15.2013
The state of California has been a leader in the use of familial DNA searches -- investigations that seek out...
Bioethics

Elementary, My Dear Fluffy: Cat DNA Solves Another Homicide

By Alan Boyle, NBC News | 08.14.2013
DNA readings from cat hairs have once again helped crack a homicide case — demonstrating the power of genetic pet...
U.S. Federal

Brown Vetoes Bill Allowing Women to Sell Eggs for Research

By Alex Matthews, Capitol Weekly | 08.14.2013
Gov. Brown vetoed controversial legislation that will allow egg donors to be compensated for oocytes, egg cells, provided for research...
Biopolitics

Should the Humanities Embrace Scientism? My Postmodern Response to Pinker’s Patronizing “Plea”

By John Horgan, Scientific American | 08.14.2013
Damn you, Gary Stix! I was just about to head off on a vacation when my old Scientific American buddy...
Biopolitics

Unhidden Traits: Genomic Data Privacy Debates Heat Up

By Abdul-Kareem Ahmed, Scientific American | 08.14.2013
Earlier this year Yaniv Erlich of the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research at M.I.T. sent bioethicists into a frenzy when...
Global Governance

US Brain Project Puts Focus on Ethics

By Helen Shen, Nature | 08.14.2013
The false mouse memories made the ethicists uneasy. By stimulating certain neurons in the hippocampus, Susumu Tonegawa and his colleagues...
Biopolitics