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

Graphic of a test tube, DNA, and 5 people

Heritable human genome editing: Who decides? Science or society?

By Françoise Baylis, Journal of Medical Ethics Blog | 10.11.2021

Many describe the move from bench to bedside (from basic science to therapeutic or preventive applications) as a sprint –...

Human Genetic Modification

silhouette of a seated man with trees in background

‘Lies and trauma’: donor-conceived adults are still haunted by their origins

By Gary Nunn, The Guardian | 10.09.2021

^{Photo by Emiliano Vittoriosi on Unsplash}

Brendan Ritter, 22, recently discovered he was donor conceived.

When he was told, his...

Genomics

Placque-ridden neurons in a brain affected by Alzheimer's

The most common Alzheimer’s risk gene may also protect against memory loss

By Jocelyn Kaiser, Science | 10.07.2021

^{Photo by NIH Image Gallery on Flickr}

A common genetic variant called APOE4 raises a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s disease...

Genetic Selection

illustration shows a padlock hanging from a DNA helix

Genetic discrimination: The next great health battle likely to wash up on NZ shores

By Chelsea Daniels, NewstalkZB | 10.06.2021

There’s growing concern about genetic discrimination in New Zealand – and the lack of Government intervention in this fast-moving field. ...

Policies

Regulating Assisted Reproduction

By Sandy Hausman, WTVF Radio IQ | 10.06.2021

^{Matylda Sęk | CC-BY-SA-3.0}

The first American test tube baby was born here in Virginia forty years ago, but the...

U.S. States

A Controversial Autism Treatment Is About to Become a Very Big Business

By Anna Merlan, Vice | 10.06.2021

When desperate parents are looking for medical treatment for their kids, especially their autistic kids, they often do two things...

Stem Cells

Francis Collins, Who Guided N.I.H. Through Covid-19 Crisis, Is Exiting

By Noah Weiland and Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 10.05.2021

WASHINGTON — Dr. Francis S. Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, holed up in an Airbnb in...

Society

At-home genetic testing for cancer and other disease risk is booming: Should you try it?

By A. Pawlowski, Today | 10.04.2021

Breast Cancer Awareness Month will cause many women to worry about their hereditary risk for developing the disease, especially if...

Society