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

Why Is Myriad Genetics Still Filing Patent Suits for Breast-Cancer Tests?

By Brian Resnick, National Journal | 08.08.2013
You can't patent a piece of the human genome, the Supreme Court declared in a unanimous decision in June...
Genomics

Americans Say No to Bringing Back Wooly Mammoth

By Ben Henderson, YouGov | 08.07.2013
A majority of Americans say cloning animals is acceptable in some circumstances, but not to reintroduce extinct species

Last month...
Public Opinion

The Henrietta Lacks Story and Eggs, Money and Motherhood

By David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report | 08.07.2013
The legacy of Henrietta Lacks popped up again today in a piece in the New York Times that should resonate...
Genomics

23andMe, Myself, and I

By Nathaniel Comfort, Genotopia | 08.07.2013
Here is the new ad from 23andMe that will begin airing shortly on cable TV*:



Genomics is going...
Arts & Culture

Deal Done Over HeLa Cell Line

By Ewen Callaway, Nature | 08.07.2013
Deborah Lacks wanted answers. In 1974, she asked a leading medical geneticist to tell her about HeLa cells, a tissue-culture...
Bioethics

Edge of the Map: An Experiment in Science and in Theater

By Alice Wexler, UCLA Center for the Study of Women | 08.06.2013
It seemed extravagant to fly to Boston from Los Angeles just to see a play, but in the end I...
Genetic Selection

If I'm Healthy, Why Should I Have my Genome Sequenced?

By Anne Buchanan et al., The Mermaid's Tale | 08.06.2013
Seriously, why?  Many people have embraced direct-to-consumer (DTC) genotyping, or whole genome sequencing, for reasons that we admit we don't...
Biopolitics

The Sorry State of Indian Surrogates

By Gina Maranto, <i>Biopolitical Times</i> guest contributor | 08.06.2013

The surrogacy industry in India is both booming and changing. A new 168-page report from the Centre for Social Research...

Technologies