Press

Media Inquiries

Katie Hasson, 1-510-665-7760 
Email: khasson[AT]geneticsandsociety[DOT]org

General Information

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

 

Press Statements

Center for Genetics and Society Comment on Base Editing of Embryo Genes: Engineered babies still a terrible idea

By Center for Genetics and Society | 06.06.2026
Press Statement

In a preprint article posted to an online repository June 1 and reported in the New York Times June 4, a research group led by Dieter Egli at Columbia University describes results of experiments using base editing to change the...

Human Genetic Modification

Center for Genetics and Society Receives Major Grant for “Confronting Eugenics to Build a Just Future”

By Center for Genetics and Society | 07.03.2025
Press Statement

The Center for Genetics and Society, a project of the Tides Center, has been awarded $751,000 by the Mellon Foundation to support activities that establish a more complete understanding of the histories and legacies of eugenics. This generous grant will...

Groundbreaking Social Justice Principles on Heritable Human Genome Editing

By Center for Genetics and Society | 02.14.2024
Press Statement

Groundbreaking Social Justice Principles on Heritable Human Genome Editing Released by International Coalition of Advocates and Scholars

Endorsed by 70+ Individuals and Organizations

An international coalition of scholars, advocates, and social change organizations today released Social Justice and Human Rights...

CGS in the News

These companies help parents try to pick their babies' traits. Experts are wary

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 05.06.2026

Justin Schleede reaches onto a black lab bench to pick up a tray of small plastic tubes.

"These are saliva samples as well as blood," says Schleede, a geneticist who runs Herasight Inc.'s lab in Morrisville, N.C. "We also...

Genetic Selection

Ces start-up qui rêvent de créer des bébés génétiquement modifiés: “Le fantasme d’un humain amélioré, sans maladies, super-performant, super-intelligent”

By Alexandre Piquard, Le Monde [cites Katie Hasson] | 04.27.2026

"Si on en prouve la sûreté, nous croyons que l’édition préventive du génome pourrait être l’une des technologies de santé les plus importantes du siècle. » Lucas Harrington explique ainsi le but de son entreprise Preventive : créer des bébés génétiquement modifiés...

Human Genetic Modification

Should We Use Gene Editing to Make Better Babies?

By John Donvan, WNYC and Open to Debate [with Marcy Darnovsky] | 04.23.2026

For complete introduction see Substack

Some call it eugenics, an unsettling step toward a world of “designer babies” reserved for the privileged. Others see something very different: a transformative scientific advance with the potential to prevent devastating genetic diseases before...

Policies

Articles and Commentary

Should We Use Gene Editing to Create Super Babies?

By Katie Hasson, The New York Times Upfront | 02.17.2025

A young couple wants to have a baby, but they’re worried it’ll carry a disease that runs in the family. “There’s a solution,” the doctor says, “a technology that can alter the disease-causing gene in the egg, ensuring that the...

Bioethics

South Africa amended its research guidelines to allow for heritable human genome editing

By Françoise Baylis and Katie Hasson, The Conversation | 10.24.2024

A little-noticed change to South Africa’s national health research guidelines, published in May of this year, has put the country on an ethical precipice. The newly added language appears to position the country as the first to explicitly permit...

Policies

Eugenics is Back: In a range of new flavors

By Anne Rumberger and Marcy Darnovsky, Science for the People | 02.29.2024

Eugenics is widely regarded as a debunked pseudoscience—developed and promoted mostly in Nazi Germany—that fell off the political radar after the horrors of the Holocaust were revealed. In fact, twentieth century eugenics represented the mainstream science of its day and...

Assisted Reproduction

Fact Sheets