Articles and Commentary

Given the U.S. fertility industry's longstanding resistance to effective oversight, the field's two recent controversies - first octuplets, then an offer of embryo screening for cosmetic traits - shouldn't really come as a surprise. What was remarkable about the reaction...

Charles Darwin -- born 200 years ago today -- remains one of the strongest influences on modern society. His theory of evolution, detailed in On the Origin of Species, sculpts our understanding of what it means to be human more...

Stem cell research may soon make headlines again. The restrictions on federal funding imposed by former President George W. Bush are expected to be lifted. But here in New York, a different type of stem cell controversy is brewing.

Since...

The long-awaited stem cell announcement expected soon after inauguration day will be a welcome corrective to the Bush administration’s restrictions. As we anticipate a new policy—one that loosens federal funding for research using stem cell lines created with in vitro...

The new human biotechnologies have the potential for both great good and great harm. If used responsibly they could lead to medical advances and improved health outcomes. If misapplied they could exacerbate health disparities and generate new forms of discrimination...

Just before the world's financial system hit the skids, the New Yorker's Talk of the Town and the New York Times' Sunday Styles section both featured lengthy accounts of a celebrity "spit party," at which notables in cocktail attire ejected...

David Frum correctly acknowledges that income inequality in the United States has been growing steadily and that the use of genetic technology by the affluent to enhance the "intelligence, health, beauty and strength" of their offspring would exacerbate this trend...

Henry Greely inaccurately characterizes my organization, the Center for Genetics and Society, as "drawn to arguments against [inheritable human genetic enhancement] by the lure of naturalness" ["The Genetics of Fear," Issue #9].

I am not sure how Greely...