News

US startup charging couples to ‘screen embryos for IQ’

By Hannah Devlin, Tom Burgis, David Pegg, and Jason Wilson, The Guardian [cites CGS’ Katie Hasson] | 10.18.2024

A US startup company is offering to help wealthy couples screen their embryos for IQ using controversial technology that raises questions about the ethics of genetic enhancement.

The company, Heliospect Genomics, has worked with more than a dozen couples undergoing...

Genetic Selection

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

The New Artificial Intelligentsia

By Ruha Benjamin, Los Angeles Review of Books | 10.18.2024

IN THE FALL OF 2016, I gave a talk at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton titled “Are Robots...

A "Post-Human" Future?

What Do You Risk With At-Home DNA Test Kits?

By Ashleigh Wyss [cites CGS' Katie Hasson], Listnr | 10.09.2024

Discovering your genetic history can be as simple as spitting into a test tube, but what happens when your data...

Society

Trans men’s eggs have been matured in the lab—and could help them have children

By Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review | 04.26.2022

Ovaries contain hundreds of thousands of underdeveloped eggs, held in a kind of suspended animation. Each month, one matures and...

Assisted Reproduction

The scientist who co-created CRISPR isn’t ruling out engineered babies someday

By Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review | 04.26.2022

The day I spoke to Jennifer Doudna was a tough day: the US Patent Office had just ruled against her...

Human Genetic Modification

Harvard pledges $100 million to atone for role in slavery

By Collin Binkley, The Columbian | 04.26.2022

BOSTON — Harvard University is vowing to spend $100 million to research and atone for its extensive ties with slavery...

Bioethics

test tubes holding sperm samples in a sperm bank

FDA Faces Push to Loosen Rules for Sperm Donations

By Amy Dockser Marcus, The Wall Street Journal | 04.25.2022

After years of public criticism, the Food and Drug Administration in 2020 relaxed its rules regarding blood donation by men...

U.S. Federal

Emory Drops Names of Eugenicist and Slavery Defender

By Josh Moody, Inside Higher Ed | 04.25.2022

Emory University is removing the names of two men with ties to eugenics and slavery, dropping them from a research...

Bioethics

Generations later, the rights of donor-conceived people are becoming law

By Naomi Cahn and Sonia Suter, The Hill | 04.23.2022

Colorado Senate president Steve Fenberg has just introduced groundbreaking legislation on the rights of donor conception. Although focused on Colorado...

Policies

It’s time for Congress to stop blocking mitochondrial replacement therapy

By Walter G. Johnson and Diana M. Bowman, STAT News | 04.22.2022

Australia has become the second country in the world to explicitly authorize and regulate mitochondrial replacement therapies, offering hope to...

Assisted Reproduction

How a Race-Based Medical Formula Is Keeping Some Black Men in Prison

By Joseph Goldstein, The New York Times | 04.22.2022

Last month, a federal judge in New Jersey considered the plea of a man who claimed his kidney problems made...

U.S. Federal