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

Sperm Donor's 24 Kids Never Told About Fatal Illness

By Susan Donaldson James, ABC News | 07.21.2011
Rebecca Blackwell and her 15-year-old son Tyler were curious about his sperm donor father, whose identity had been anonymous since...
Civil Society

Unnatural Selection

By Ilana Yurkiewicz, Science Progress | 07.18.2011
In July 37 parents and supporters in New Zealand brought a complaint to the International Criminal Court accusing their state...
Genetic Selection

Unnatural Selection

By Ilana Yurkiewicz, Science Progress | 07.18.2011
In July 37 parents and supporters in New Zealand brought a complaint to the International Criminal Court accusing their state...
Genetic Selection

Stark warning on fertility for older women

By Martin Beckford, Telegraph [UK] | 07.18.2011
An academic journal article states that “IVF cannot compensate for delays in childbearing” because of the biological effects of ageing...
Assisted Reproduction

Where Families Are Prized, Help Is Free

By Dina Kraft, New York Times | 07.17.2011

Jewish and Arab, straight and gay, secular and religious, the patients who come to Assuta Hospital in Tel Aviv every...

Reproductive Justice, Health & Rights

Genetic Code of E. Coli Is Hijacked by Biologists

By Nicholas Wade, New York Times | 07.14.2011

Synthetic biology, the quest to hijack living systems and convert them to human-directed goals, is on the march. Last year...

Genomics

Sex Selection and Asia's "Missing Girls"

By Michelle Chen, Asia Pacific Forum, WBAI | 07.11.2011

We often hear about sex selective abortion as an issue that is confined to India and China. New research suggests...

Media Coverage

Hypocrisy or Irony? Right-Wing Media and Abortion

By Cynthia Dill, Huffington Post | 07.10.2011

Sitting in his ivory tower reserved for men only in Portland, Maine, M.D. Harmon lectures readers about the myriad uses...

Genetic Selection