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
Ukrainian flag

Ukraine’s Surrogacy Industry Has Put Women in Impossible Positions

By Alison Motluk, The Atlantic | 03.01.2022

Ukrainian Flag by Jolanta Dyr from Pixabay

Nothing crystallizes the “her body, my baby” conundrum of surrogacy quite like a...

Other Countries
Photo of Jennifer Doudna

UC Berkeley loses CRISPR gene editing patent case

By Lisa M. Krieger, The Mercury News | 02.28.2022

Photo of Jennifer Doudna licensed for reuse under CC BY-SA 3.0

UC Berkeley scientist Jennifer Doudna earned a Nobel Prize...

Policies
Sperm cell reaching an egg cell

When an Ancestry Search Reveals Fertility Fraud

By Jacqueline Mroz, The New York Times | 02.28.2022

Like millions of Americans, David Berry was curious about his genealogy. He wanted to learn more about his paternal grandfather...

U.S. States
a black mother holding her baby

Sperm Banks Struggle to Recruit Black Donors and Other Donors of Color

By Amy Dockser Marcus, Wall Street Journal | 02.26.2022

A few years after her marriage broke up, Aisha Jenkins started thinking about having a baby on her own. She...

Perspectives
He Jiankui

How to protect the first ‘CRISPR babies’ prompts ethical debate

By Smriti Mallapaty, Nature | 02.25.2022

Photo of He Jiankui licensed for reuse under CC BY 3.0

Two prominent bioethicists in China are calling on the...

Other Countries
globe held by pair of hands representing countries of the world

Genomics’ Ethical Gray Areas Are Harming the Developing World

By Dyna Rochmyaningsih, Undark Magazine | 02.24.2022

Since the first human genome was sequenced in the early 2000s, scientists have touted the breakthrough as a blessing to humanity...

Other Countries
Thomas Insel

The ‘Nation’s Psychiatrist’ Takes Stock, With Frustration

By Ellen Barry, The New York Times | 02.22.2022

Official photo of Thomas Insel from the NIMH Office of the Director

A new book by Dr. Thomas P. Insel...

Genomics

Gene-Edited Brain Organoids Are Unlocking the Secrets of Autism

By Amit Katwala, Wired | 02.21.2022

Hundreds of genes have been linked to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a complicated range of conditions affecting the behavior, social...

Genomics