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

With Sobs and Doubts, Greenlandic Women Receive Apology for Forced Contraception

By Jeffrey Gettleman and Maya Tekeli, The New York Times | 09.24.2025

For some Greenlanders, sorry isn’t enough.

The prime minister of Denmark, Mette Frederiksen, made a special visit Wednesday to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, to apologize in person for a traumatic chapter in Greenlandic history, when Danish doctors forced birth control on...

Society

Gestript van zorgen, gêne en pijn

By Marianne Lamers, NEMO Kennislink [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 09.23.2025

Een rijtje gespreide vulva’s gaapt de bezoeker aan. Zó ziet een bevalling eruit, en zó een baarmoeder met foetus. Een zwangerschap, maar dan zonder zwangere vrouw, gestript van zorgen, gêne en pijn. De zwangerschapsmodellen en oefenbekkens, te zien in de...

Human Genetic Modification

US border patrol collected DNA from thousands of US citizens for years, data shows

By Johana Bhuiyan, The Guardian | 09.23.2025

In March 2021, a 25-year-old US citizen was traveling through Chicago’s Midway airport when they were stopped by US border patrol agents. Though charged with no crime, the 25-year-old was subjected to a cheek swab to collect their DNA, which...

Policies

Disgust, Horror, and “Elimination”: Trump and RFK Jr.’s Eugenicist Autism Conference

By Julie Métraux, Mother Jones | 09.23.2025

“Donald Trump” by Gage Skidmore  is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

On Monday, President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a press conference on their attempts to divine the causes of autism—much...

Bioethics

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