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
a man in a wheelchair on the sidewalk

Remote work made life easier for many people with disabilities. They want the option to stay

By Neelam Bohra and AJ Willingham, CNN | 08.10.2021

Gabe Moses prefers to work his eight-hour shift for a call center while lying on his stomach, resting on a...

Bioethics

‘Socialized Research’ and ‘Privatized Profits’: California's Gene Therapy Research and Million Dollar Plus Treatments

By David Jensen, The California Stem Cell Report | 08.09.2021

Only eight days after the California stem cell agency approved its most recent award for its $60 million battle against...

Stem Cells
2 giraffes

Giraffes May Be as Socially Complex as Chimps and Elephants

By Cara Giaimo, The New York Times | 08.07.2021

Photo licensed for use by CC BY-SA 2.5 on Wikimedia Commons

Giraffes seem above it all. They float over the...

Genomics
a banner saying eugenics over a tree

They, the people

By Patricia J. Williams, TLS | 08.06.2021

In 1853, Joseph-Arthur, Comte de Gobineau published a tract entitled “Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races”, in which...

Eugenics
GMO corn field with signs

USDA’s actions on gene-edited approvals challenged in court

By Jacqui Fatka, Farm Progress | 08.06.2021

Photo licensed for use by CC BY 2.0 on Wikimedia Commons

In May 2020, the previous administration’s USDA issued its...

Policies
bone marrow

She Has Stem Cells in Her Crosshairs

By Elizabeth Preston, NEO.LIFE | 08.05.2021

Photo by Ed Uthman on Flickr

In 2017, Agnieszka Czechowicz watched a four-year-old girl sleeping soundly in a California hospital...

Stem Cells
Lung X-Ray

These Algorithms Look at X-Rays—and Somehow Detect Your Race

By Tom Simonite, Wired | 08.05.2021

Photo licensed for use by CC BY-SA 4.0 on Wikimedia Commons

Millions of dollars are being spent to develop artificial intelligence...

A "Post-Human" Future?
Women protesting with signs that read "stop abortion bans"

The governor was right to veto a dangerous NC abortion bill

By Rebecca Todd Peters, The Charlotte Observer | 08.04.2021

Photo by Fibonacci Blue on Flickr

The N.C. legislature is soon expected to vote on whether to override or uphold...

U.S. States