News

These companies help parents try to pick their babies' traits. Experts are wary

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.06.2026

Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.

"These are saliva samples as well as blood," says Schleede, a geneticist who runs Herasight Inc.'s lab in Morrisville, N.C. "We also...

Genetic Selection

The Measured Listener

By Daniel Shanahan, Los Angeles Review of Books | 05.31.2026

This is the 15th 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. You can read the first part here. The series...

U.S. States

The start-ups dreaming of creating genetically modified babies

By Alexandre Piquard, Le Monde [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.22.2026

"If proven to be safe, we believe preventive gene editing could be one of the most important health technologies of...

U.S. Federal

Natural Election

By Jonathan Basile, Los Ángeles Review of Books | 04.29.2026

WILLIAM BATESON, a foundational figure in the science of genetics at the turn of the last century, once recounted the...

Society

Glowing plant project on Kickstarter sparks debate about regulation of DNA modification

By Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post | 10.03.2013

Hunkered down in a converted shipping container stationed in a San Francisco parking lot, three young entrepreneurs are tinkering with...

Genomics

23andMe's Designer Baby Patent is 'a Serious Mistake,' Critics Charge

By Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times | 10.03.2013
What’s even more repulsive than the idea of using DNA tests to help people create a designer babies? Getting a...
Assisted Reproduction

23andMe's 'Build-a-Baby' Patent Criticised

By BBC, BBC News [Quotes CGS's Marcy Darnovsky] | 10.03.2013

 

A US patent for a database that uses DNA testing to tell prospective parents which traits their future offspring...

U.S. Federal

Google vs. Death? Really?

By Pete Shanks, Huffington Post | 10.03.2013

Has Google gone right off the deep end? It's common for techies to be infatuated with transhumanism and other far-out...

Media Coverage

Dangerous Work

By Editorial, Nature | 10.02.2013
Intelligence tests were first devised in the early twentieth century as a way to identify children who needed extra help...
Biopolitics

Genetic Testing to be Easier Under Obamacare

By Veronica Linares, UPI.com | 10.02.2013
Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act began Tuesday and in the legislation's all-inclusive policy programs are a variety of...
Genomics

Feds Looks at Plan to Collect DNA from Suspects upon Arrest

By Kim Mackrael, The Globe and Mail | 10.02.2013
The federal government is considering a move to collect DNA samples from suspects upon arrest for certain crimes, a significant...
Other Countries

The Damaging Language of “Cure” and Down Syndrome

By Amy Julia Becker, Patheos | 10.02.2013
When Amy Julia Becker asked me to write a post responding to the question “Should Down syndrome Be Cured?” I...
Biotech & Pharma