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

Beyond IVF: Scientists debate ethics of human reproduction without egg and sperm

By Karen Weintraub, USA Today [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 04.23.2023

Scientists are getting closer to the possibility of making a new person from skin or blood cells – without the need for sex.

This approach goes well beyond in vitro fertilization, which combines egg and sperm in a laboratory, because it doesn't require natural eggs...

Assisted Reproduction

Out of jail, is the CRISPR-baby scandal scientist at it again?

By Natasha Mitchell, ABC [feat. CGS' Katie Hasson] | 03.17.2023

Chinese scientist Dr Jiankui He flouted the law and bioethics basics to create the world's first CRISPR gene edited babies. Now out of jail, he's on Twitter recruiting patients and raising funds for more trials, this time in adults not embryos. An...

Human Genetic Modification

It’s Official: No More Crispr Babies—for Now

By Grace Browne, Wired [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 03.17.2023

Last Week in London, a small group of protestors braved it out in the rain in front of the Francis Crick Institute, where the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing was taking place. The sparse congregation, from the group ...

Human Genetic Modification

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