News

The quest to create gene-edited babies gets a reboot

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 08.06.2025

A Chinese scientist horrified the world in 2018 when he revealed he had secretly engineered the birth of the world's first gene-edited babies.

His work was reviled as reckless and unethical because, among other reasons, gene-editing was so new...

Genetic Selection

Baby Bonuses and Motherhood Medals: Why We Shouldn’t Trust the Pronatalist Movement

By Staff, National Women's Law Center | 08.13.2025

INTRODUCTION

Baby bonuses. Motherhood medals. Fertility tracking. You may have heard of these policy proposals as solutions from the Trump administration to help encourage women to have more children.

Besides falling short of ensuring that people have what they need...

Human Genetic Modification

We Don’t Know if the Babies Born From Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy Will Still Develop Mitochondrial Disease

By Katherine Drabiak, Journal of Medical Ethics Forum | 08.07.2025

Adapted from Mitochondrial DNA at
National Human Genome Research Institute

Recently, media outlets around the world have been reporting on...

Assisted Reproduction

Can doctors test embryos for autism? And should they?

By Brittany Luse, Liam McBain, and Neena Pathak, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.28.2025

A newly available kind of genetic testing, called polygenic embryo screening, promises to screen for conditions that can include cancer...

Genetic Selection

More than 100 N.C. Eugenics Matches Made

By Herbet L. White, Charlotte Post | 03.19.2012

More than 100 people have been verified as unwitting sterilization victims of North Carolina’s Eugenics program.

The N.C. Justice for...

Eugenics

At a Crossroads, California’s Stem Cell Agency Ponders a Future Without Taxpayer Support

By Alicia Chang, Washington Post | 03.18.2012
LOS ANGELES — The creation of California’s stem cell agency in 2004 was greeted by scientists and patients as a...
Stem Cells

California's Dark Legacy of Forced Sterilizations

By Elizabeth Cohen and John Bonifield, CNN | 03.15.2012

(CNN) -- Sixty-seven years ago, 14-year-old Charlie Follett was living in California's Sonoma State Home. As he did most days...

Racial Justice

Bioengineer Humans to Tackle Climate Change, Say Philosophers

By Leo Hickman, Guardian | 03.14.2012

Earlier this week, The Atlantic ran an eye-catching disturbing interview with a professor of philosophy and bioethics at New York...

Human Genetic Modification

New York State Set to Add All Convict DNA to Its Database

By John Eligon and Thomas Kaplan, New York Times | 03.14.2012

ALBANY — New York is poised to establish one of the most expansive DNA databases in the nation, requiring people...

Genomics

FDA Receives Complaint About Houston Company that Stored Gov. Perry's Stem Cells

By Todd Ackerman, Houston Chronicle | 03.14.2012
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has received a complaint alleging the Houston company involved in Gov. Rick Perry's...
Bioethics

Environmental Groups Call for Tighter Regulation of ‘Extreme Genetic Engineering’

By Brian Vastag, Washington Post | 03.13.2012

Genetically engineered microbes that might one day churn out biofuels, clean up toxic waste or generate new medicines need to...

Genomics

Celltex Muscles Ethics Professor For Contacting FDA

By Ed Silverman , Pharmalot | 03.12.2012
Over the past month, a controversy erupted involving a stem cell company called Celltex Therapeutics and a newly hired executive...
Bioethics