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.

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GATTACA on Screen in San Rafael with Katie Hasson

By Pete Shanks | 06.26.2024
Biopolitical Times

GATTACA was released in 1997, but — remarkably — is even more relevant now than it was then, as the technologies whose social implications it explores have developed considerably. 

On Thursday, June 13, the California Film Institute presented GATTACA to a sold-out house at the Christopher B. Smith Rafael Film Center as part of their Science on Screen series. CGS Associate Director Katie Hasson offered framing for the film and participated in a Q+A discussion.

The film’s plot explicitly involves...

Assisted Reproduction

The legacy of eugenics

By Sheila Kaplan, UC Berkeley School of Public Health | 06.20.2024

Aggregated News

Image by Gennie Stafford from Flickr

These days, it’s a rare scientist who would admit to working in eugenics.

The word conjures historical horrors: mass sterilization of people judged unfit to reproduce, state anti-miscegenation laws, and Germany’s justification for the...

Human Genetic Modification

Population Bomb, Great Replacement Theory, and Pronatalism

By Kyla Rosin | 06.27.2024
Biopolitical Times

Image from Population Bomb, Great Replacement Theory, and Pronatalism

The panel “Population Bomb, Great Replacement Theory, and Pronatalism”...

Genetic Selection

Groundbreaking principles on heritable genome editing bring social justice voices to the fore

By Emily Galpern, Guest Contributor | 02.14.2024
Biopolitical Times

Note: As of June 27, 2024, the Social Justice and Human Rights Principles for Global Deliberations on Heritable Genome Editing...

Global Governance

Biopolitical Times

Eugenics: still a fool's errand

By Emma McDonald Kennedy | 07.11.2024

Louise Perry’s recent article in The Spectator cautions against “The quiet return of eugenics,” a threat she locates in preimplantation...

Genetic Selection

Fluctuating Fortunes of Techno-Prophets

By Pete Shanks | 07.02.2024

Photo by TeggorMindFish via Wikimedia Commons, licensed under
the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Prophets of...

Genetic Selection

Population Bomb, Great Replacement Theory, and Pronatalism

By Kyla Rosin | 06.27.2024

Image from Population Bomb, Great Replacement Theory, and Pronatalism

The panel “Population Bomb, Great Replacement Theory, and Pronatalism”...

Genetic Selection

News

Why isn’t gene therapy available to more patients? Blame millionaire prices and uncertainty as to its effectiveness

By Oriol Güell, El País | 07.07.2024

Image by Nick Youngson from Pix4free

Darius is 15 years old and is a dazzling example of how medical research has advanced. Born with a rare and lethal genetic disease, early active cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy — CALD, the same condition...

Human Genetic Modification

Work on synthetic human embryos to get code of practice in UK

By Ian Sample, The Guardian | 07.04.2024

Biological models of human embryos that can develop heartbeats, spinal cords and other distinctive features will be governed by a code of practice in Britain to ensure that researchers work on them responsibly.

Made from stem cells, they mimic, to...

Policies

A pill to treat sickle cell disease? Compound that activates fetal gene raises new hope

By Robert F. Service, Science | 07.04.2024

Image by Ed Uthman from Flickr

Last year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved two gene therapy procedures that can treat and, in some cases essentially cure sickle cell disease, a genetic blood disorder that causes pain and...

Human Genetic Modification

Court orders Japanese government to pay damages over forced sterilisations

By Justin McCurry, The Guardian | 07.03.2024

Photo by Roméo A. on Unsplash

Japan’s supreme court has ordered the government to pay damages to dozens of people who were forcibly sterilised under a now-defunct eugenics law, saying the practice had violated their constitutional rights.

Wednesday’s ruling by...

Society

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