Articles and Commentary

A group of faculty members from Stanford University recently published a set of guidelines for using race in human genetics research. These guidelines, called the “Ten Commandments of Race and Genetics” by the New Scientist, provide...

The recent media storm over the in vitro fertilization-induced birth of octuplets has receded into the tabloids and entertainment pages. A second fertility industry scandal that emerged several weeks later-the announcement by a Los Angeles fertility clinic that it would...

While juggling a collapsing economy and major initiatives during his first months in office, President Obama tackled - and cooled - a contentious issue that has simmered for almost 10 years: embryonic stem cell research. His March 9 executive order...

Each year, assisted reproduction quietly helps thousands of people in their quest for children biologically related to them. But the fertility field has been far from quiet of late. In recent weeks, two scandals burst into the headlines

The first...

President Obama's recent removal of his predecessor's stem cell policy is a welcome development. The Bush administration's restriction on the federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research was outdated and increasingly unpopular. While much of the media coverage...

The recent birth of in vitro fertilized octuplets to Nadya Suleman, a Whittier woman, sent jaws dropping all over the world. Before long, another southern California controversy emerged: The Fertility Institutes in Los Angeles last month announced plans to not...

Given the U.S. fertility industry's longstanding resistance to effective oversight, the field's two recent controversies - first octuplets, then an offer of embryo screening for cosmetic traits - shouldn't really come as a surprise. What was remarkable about the reaction...

Charles Darwin -- born 200 years ago today -- remains one of the strongest influences on modern society. His theory of evolution, detailed in On the Origin of Species, sculpts our understanding of what it means to be human more...