Civil Society

Civil society typically refers to nonprofit advocacy organizations, sometimes called nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), that are political actors separate from government and private enterprises. For many important social issues, there are dense networks of civil society institutions. In general, they play an important role in holding governments accountable, countering the power of corporations, and contributing to democratic governance. Discussions of the social consequences of human biotechnologies are incomplete without the inclusion of civil society perspectives – for example, from reproductive, disability, LGBTQI, racial, and environmental justice movements – because of the potential for these technologies to exacerbate existing inequalities and create new ones.


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How do you stop a mad scientist?

We’ve been doing it in fiction for centuries. Doctor Faustus was carried off to hell. Pneumonia and an Arctic ice flow ended Victor FrankensteinDoctor Moreau’s own creations ultimately did him...

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California is being sued over its DNA collection practices, and the only thing that’s surprising is how long it took. In 2004, state voters passed Proposition 69, which requires authorities to collect DNA from anyone arrested for a felony. The...

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Advocates of science are in a bad place right now. Some days, in this Second Year of Trump, scientism—a blanket...

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This week, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts announced that geneticists had analyzed her DNA and proved her longstanding claim that...

A strand of double helix DNA

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A group of sperm cells moving toward an egg

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a law textbook and a gavel on a grey background

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A human face being scanned by AI technology

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stem cells dyed yellow on a green background

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a blue DNA double helix with various lines of genetic code in the background.

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a photo of the Francis Crick Institute

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