The Center for Genetics and Society brings social justice and human rights to the center of public and policy discussions about human genetics and assisted reproduction.

Featured

Eugenics, from Victorian to Postmodern

By Pete Shanks | 09.24.2025
Biopolitical Times

Sir Francis Galton, 1890s, by Eveleen Myers (née Tennant)
npg.org
Public Domain via Wikipedia

As has been discussed in recent issues of Biopolitical Times (1, 2), there are, increasingly, companies that claim to be selling parents better babies by selecting the “best” embryos. These services don’t come cheap – think $50,000, or even more, for embryo testing, plus perhaps as much again for IVF and concomitant services. To most of us, that is extremely expensive...

Policies

Can Trump’s IVF Policies Please His Pronatalist Base?

By Emma McDonald Kennedy | 09.25.2025
Biopolitical Times

In the leadup to the 2024 election, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to make IVF more accessible. He made the commitment central to his campaign, even referring to himself as the “father of IVF.” In his first month in office, Trump issued an executive order promising to expand IVF access. The order set a 90-day deadline for policy recommendations for “lowering costs and reducing barriers to IVF,” although it didn’t make any substantive reproductive healthcare policy changes.

The response to the...

Policies

A New Eugenics Gold Rush? From designer babies to not-quite-designer jeans

By Katie Hasson | 08.21.2025
Biopolitical Times

If you’ve been online or caught the news in the past few weeks, you’ve probably come across Sydney Sweeney, her...

Human Genetic Modification

The quest to create gene-edited babies gets a reboot

By Rob Stein, NPR [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 08.06.2025

Aggregated News

A Chinese scientist horrified the world in 2018 when he revealed he had secretly engineered the birth of the world's...

Genetic Selection

Biopolitical Times

Can Trump’s IVF Policies Please His Pronatalist Base?

By Emma McDonald Kennedy | 09.25.2025

In the leadup to the 2024 election, Donald Trump repeatedly promised to make IVF more accessible. He made the commitment...

Policies

Chimeras: The Genetic Modification of Nature

By Pete Shanks | 09.25.2025

GeneWatch UK has prepared a briefing on the genetic modification of nature for the International Union for Conservation of Nature...

Animal Biotechnologies

Eugenics, from Victorian to Postmodern

By Pete Shanks | 09.24.2025

Sir Francis Galton, 1890s, by Eveleen Myers (née Tennant)
npg.org
Public Domain via Wikipedia

As has been discussed in recent...

Policies

News

Time to end self-regulation of the Australian fertility industry

By Karin Hammarberg and Catherine Mills, BioNews | 10.13.2025

The Australian fertility industry has been rocked by several recent cases of embryo and sperm mix-ups. With a lack of transparency about what clinics do to prevent such errors recurring, trust and confidence in the industry and how it is...

Policies

Beyond dire wolves: Could Colossal’s de-extinction work transform human health?

By Meagan Parrish, PharmaVoice | 10.10.2025

When CEO Ben Lamm steps into the spotlight, it’s usually to talk about his efforts bringing extinct animals back to life. Once a far-flung idea, Lamm and the company he heads, Colossal Biosciences, have proven they can pull it off...

Assisted Reproduction

In China, a low-cost push to rival a life-saving, $2M medicine

By Jared Whitlock, Endpoints News | 10.09.2025

When Nirnay Murthy learned about a treatment for his toddler son’s rare condition, relief quickly gave way to disappointment.

A one-time gene therapy called Zolgensma from the Swiss drugmaker Novartis can halt spinal muscular atrophy, a deadly condition that causes...

Other Countries

Push for Military Coverage of I.V.F. Faces Challenge in Congress

By Megan Mineiro and Caroline Kitchener, The New York Times | 10.05.2025

Kathleen Whipple and her husband had dreamed of a big family, but struggled to conceive.

Upon his return from an overseas deployment with the Navy, the couple learned from a fertility doctor that her husband’s sperm count was half of...

Policies

Video
Reproduction and Family Formation: The State and the Market
Use Gene Editing to Make Better Babies | Debate | Intelligence Squared U.S.
The 'Perfect' Baby?: The Dangers of Gene Editing in Assisted Reproduction