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

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

Cancer Establishment Admits We’re Getting Overtested and Overtreated

By John Horgan, Scientific American | 08.05.2013
I’ve complained in previous columns about excessive medical testing, which leads to unnecessary treatment and drives up health care costs...
Technologies