Press

Media Inquiries

Marcy Darnovsky, 1-510-665-7760, ext. 305 
Email: darnovsky[AT]geneticsandsociety[DOT]org

General Information

Email: info[AT]geneticsandsociety[DOT]org
Voice messages: 510-665-7760, ext. 0

 

Press Statements

Calls for Course Correction in the Heritable Genome Editing Debate: Decentering the Summit, Spotlighting Social Justice

By Center for Genetics and Society | 03.04.2023
Press Statement

Events and initiatives highlight widespread opposition to altering the genes of future children and generations

“Genetic Justice from Start to Summit” symposium now available online

The Center for Genetics and Society’s virtual symposium “Genetic Justice from Start to Summit” was...

Comment on WHO Human Genome Editing Recommendations

By Center for Genetics and Society | 07.12.2021
Press Statement

WHO committee recognizes need for global cooperation, meaningful public engagement on heritable genome editing; falls short by not calling for global ban

Today a World Health Organization advisory committee released two reports with recommendations for governance of human genome editing, the...

New research shows that heritable genome editing is prohibited in most countries with relevant policies

By Center for Genetics and Society | 10.27.2020
Press Statement

New research just published in The CRISPR Journal finds that 70 countries categorically prohibit heritable human genome editing – procedures that would result in the birth of genetically modified children (so-called CRISPR babies). The results contrast with widespread underreporting of...

CGS in the News

Lab-grown babies on the horizon: how IVG could transform human reproduction

By Willow Shah-Neville, Labiotech [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 08.22.2023

Lately, there seems to have been a lot of talk about the possibility of ‘lab-grown babies’. Proper research into this area kicked off around a decade ago, and is still largely experimental in humans. But, the technique used to potentially...

Human Genetic Modification

Human embryo replicas have gotten more complex. Here’s what you need to know

By Tina Hesman Saey, Science News [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 07.24.2023

Some newly reported clumps of cells growing in lab dishes have been hailed as the closest things to human embryos that scientists have ever made in the lab.

These entities are human embryo models — masses of cells created from...

Assisted Reproduction

Inside a Ukrainian baby factory

By Ilya Gridneff, Emily Schultheis and Dmytro Drabyk , Politico [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 07.23.2023

KYIV, Ukraine — When Tanya, a 45-year-old woman living in Los Angeles, paid $10,000 and sent two embryos to a surrogacy firm in Ukraine hoping to build a family six years ago, she says she never expected the uncertainty...

Other Countries

Op-Eds

From small beginnings: to build an anti-eugenic future

By Benedict Ipgrave, Miroslava Chavez-Garcia, Marcy Darnovsky, Subhadra Das, Charlene Galarneau, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Nora Ellen Groce, Tony Platt, Milton Reynolds, Marius Turda, Robert A Wilson, The Lancet | 05.21.2022

September, 1921 was unusually hot and New York was sweltering. For the many immigrants who crowded the city's tenements and pavements, one of the few places for relief from the incessant heat was the American Museum of Natural History. That...

A "Post-Human" Future?

Ethics of Surrogacy During COVID-19 Pandemic

By Cathy Sakimura and Emily Galpern, Men Having Babies | 05.12.2021

The COVID pandemic has placed new hurdles to having a child through surrogacy, complicating international surrogacy in particular by restricting travel, delaying birth certificates and visas, and introducing specific considerations about safety and well-being. In addition, the pandemic has created...

Bioethics

Response to Levrier re: Human Germline and Heritable Genome Editing: The Global Policy Landscape

By Marcy Darnovsky, Katie Hasson, and Timothy M. Krahn, The CRISPR Journal | 02.19.2021
Levrier apparently misunderstands the nature of our project published in The CRISPR Journal in October 2020.
Policies

Fact Sheets