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

Boy or Girl? Down Syndrome? What to Expect When You’re Testing

By Susan Gilbert, Bioethics Forum | 08.11.2011
News about simple maternal blood tests that can accurately identify the sex of a fetus, genetic disorders, and other traits...
Genetic Selection

Boy or Girl? Down Syndrome? What to Expect When You’re Testing

By Susan Gilbert, Bioethics Forum | 08.11.2011
News about simple maternal blood tests that can accurately identify the sex of a fetus, genetic disorders, and other traits...
Genetic Selection

Surrogacy Scandal Raises Question About Regulation

By Julie Watson, Associated Press | 08.11.2011
SAN DIEGO — She built a name for herself as a highly skilled reproductive law specialist in a state considered...
Fact Sheets

The Two-Minus-One Pregnancy

By Ruth Padawer, New York Times | 08.10.2011

As Jenny lay on the obstetrician’s examination table, she was grateful that the ultrasound tech had turned off the overhead...
Assisted Reproduction

Test Can Tell Fetal Sex at 7 Weeks, Study Says

By Pam Belluck, New York Times | 08.09.2011
A simple blood test that can determine a baby’s sex as early as seven weeks into pregnancy is highly accurate...
Reproductive Justice, Health & Rights

Is Public Health and Safety Being Considered in the Construction of LBNL's New Biolab in Berkeley?

By Jeremy Gruber, Tina Stevens, and Becky McClain, The Berkeley Daily Planet | 08.08.2011
In April of this year, U.C. Berkeley researchers announced the creation of the U. C. Berkeley Synthetic Biology Institute (SBI)...
Fact Sheets

NHS ignores gene patents, experts say

By Clive Cookson, Financial Times | 08.05.2011

Genetic testing laboratories in the National Health Service are deliberately ignoring most patents on DNA, experts told a meeting in...

Biotech & Pharma

DNA: Law requiring arrestees' samples struck down

By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle | 08.05.2011

A voter-approved California law requiring police to collect DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony violates the constitutional privacy...

Fact Sheets