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

Researchers Turn Off Down’s Syndrome Genes

By Beth Mole, Nature | 07.17.2013
The insertion of one gene can muzzle the extra copy of chromosome 21 that causes Down’s syndrome, according to a...
Genomics

Senator Leahy Urges NIH to Use March-In Rights on Myriad BRCA Test

By Donald Zuhn, Patent Docs | 07.17.2013
On Friday, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) sent a letter to Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of...
Genomics

The Ethics of Three-Genetic-Parent Embryos

By Margaret Somerville, Ottawa Citizen | 07.17.2013
The United Kingdom Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority has been in the news for giving the go-ahead to creating three-genetic-parent...
Genetic Selection

Viewpoints: Risks are Many in Paying Women to Donate Eggs

By Diane Tober and Nancy Scheper-Hughes, The Sacramento Bee | 07.16.2013

As scientists in California delve more deeply into stem cell research and reproductive science, it is essential that women donating...

Stem Cells

Pitts: Gruesome Bad Old Days of Eugenics Haven't Left Us

By Leonard Pitts, The Columbian | 07.15.2013
As Christina Cordero remembers it, the doctor would not take no for an answer.

"As soon as he found out...
Human Rights

Veto Campaign Launched on California Pay-for-Eggs Bill

By David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report | 07.12.2013
Opponents of the California pay-for-eggs bill have kicked off a campaign to urge Gov. Jerry Brown to veto the industry-backed...
Stem Cells

You Can’t Patent Human Genes. So Why are Genetic Testing Companies Getting Sued?

By Timothy B. Lee, The Washington Post | 07.12.2013
Critics of human gene patents rejoiced last month when the nation’s highest court ruled that human genes can’t be patented...
Biopolitics

Is Your DNA in a Police Database?

By Jill Lawless, Associated Press | 07.12.2013
You can ditch your computer and leave your cellphone at home, but you can't escape your DNA.

It belongs uniquely...
Genomics