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

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

More DNA Samples, More Debate

By Erica E. Phillips, The Wall Street Journal | 09.23.2013
Law-enforcement agencies in many places routinely take DNA samples from people convicted of murder and other violent crimes. But here...
Biotech & Pharma