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

How Biotech Crops Can Crash—and Still Never Fail

By Aniket Aga, Maywa Montenegro de Wit, Scientific American | 12.27.2021

The United Nations Food Systems Summit held last September was eclipsed by a powerful countermobilization effort led by farmers and...

Biotech & Pharma

A Popular Test Claims to Boost I.V.F. Success. The Science Is Unclear.

By Amy Klein, The New York Times | 12.18.2021

For patients undergoing in vitro fertilization, there is a common test to help determine the best time to transfer the...

Assisted Reproduction

Stem cell agency: Following the money — and its performance

By David Jensen, Capitol Weekly | 12.17.2021

One year ago this month, a $5.5 billion wave washed over California’s ambitious stem cell agency and left it refreshed...

Policies

Rushing Quebec’s Bill 2 risks leaving many voices unheard

By Alana Cattapan, Vanessa Gruben, Stefanie Carsley and Angela Cameron, CTV News | 12.14.2021

^{Photo by Cecilie Johnsen on Unsplash}

Last month, the Quebec government introduced Bill 2, which aims to comprehensively amend Quebec’s...

Policies

Journal Retracts Paper Based On DNA of Vulnerable Chinese Minorities

By Mara Hvistendahl, The Intercept | 12.13.2021

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A highly regarded scientific journal has retracted a paper based on...

Society

The Eugenics Movement in Retrospect

By Rob DeSalle, Natural History | 12.11.2021

One hundred years ago, the Second International Congress of Eugenics was held from September 22-28, 1921, at the American Museum...

U.S. States

On the legacies of eugenics

By Marius Turda, Challenging Pseudoscience (Apple Podcast) | 12.10.2021

This episode is a recording of a talk given by medical historian, Marius Turda, at the Royal Institution in September...

U.S. States

The big idea: how much do we really want to know about our genes?

By Daniel M Davis, The Guardian | 12.06.2021

While at the till in a clothes shop, Ruby received a call. She recognised the woman’s voice as the genetic...

Genetic Selection