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
checking creatine levels

Can an Equation to Help Determine Kidney Health Be Racist?

By Jill Neimark, Undark Magazine | 01.26.2022

"creatinine" by Lori Greig is licensed under CC 2.0

On the morning of June 19, 2020—Juneteenth, now a...

Bioethics
A scientist working in a lab

2022 State Legislative Efforts Bring New Hope For Those Struggling With Infertility

By Ellen Trachman, Above The Law | 01.26.2022

"GLERL Scientist uses Lab's Inverted Microscope" by 
NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory 
is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0...

Policies

‘Unproven and unethical’: experts warn against genetic embryo tests

By Linda Geddes, The Guardian | 01.25.2022

Experts have warned against the “unproven” and “unethical” use of genetic tests to predict the risk of complex diseases in...

Genetic Selection
The cover of the report

Disabled People Can Still Be Forcibly Sterilized in Over Half of the US

By Rewire News Group Staff, Rewire News Group | 01.25.2022

A National Women’s Law Center report released today shines a light on the dark reality of modern-day eugenics.

More than...

U.S. States
Abnormal mouse mitochondria

On the road to treating mitochondrial disease

By Danielle Gerhard, Drug Discovery News | 01.24.2022

"Abnormal Mouse Mitochondria" 
by National Institutes of Health (NIH) 
is licensed under CC BY 2.0

Mitochondrial disease, whether...

Human Genetic Modification
A crowd of women holding up white flags and a white banner that reads "MARCH FOR LIFE" in red

White nationalists are flocking to the US anti-abortion movement

By Moira Donegan, The Guardian | 01.24.2022

Photo by Steve Sanchez on Shutterstock

This weekend’s March for Life rally, the large anti-choice demonstration held annually in Washington...

Eugenics

Some egg donor agencies advertise $275,000 paychecks on social media — but the rigorous process is a far cry from making a 'quick buck'

By Hannah Towey, Business Insider | 01.23.2022

 

The complex nature of the egg donation business is baked right into the name. A careful balancing act between...

U.S. Federal

A $3bn bet on finding the fountain of youth

By Staff, The Economist | 01.22.2022

Startups come and startups go. But few startups start with $3bn in the bank. Yet that is the fortunate position in...

Stem Cells