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

The Shameful Legacy of Tuskegee Is Still Relevant

By Pete Shanks | 01.28.2026
Biopolitical Times

Group of Tuskegee Experiment test subjects
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Every generation needs to learn about what is commonly known as the Tuskegee syphilis study, which ran from 1932 to 1972. (Officially, it was the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee, Alabama, which gets the emphasis right.) For many people, the history is hard to believe, though it is hardly unique. Of the 600 subjects, all Black men, 399 had syphilis, for which...

U.S. Federal

The Mysterious Eugenics of Aesthetic Taste

By Michael Rossi, The Los Angeles Review of Books | 01.11.2026

Aggregated News

This is the 10th installment in the Legacies of Eugenics series, which features essays by leading thinkers devoted to exploring the history of eugenics and the ways it shapes our present. The series is organized by Osagie K. Obasogie in...

Arts & Culture

More and “Better” Babies: The Dark Side of the Pronatalist Movement

By Daphne O. Martschenko and Julia E. H. Brown, Hastings Bioethics Forum | 01.14.2026

Aggregated News

There is growing concern that falling fertility rates will lead to economic and demographic catastrophe. The social and political movement...

Genetic Selection

Bay Area Startups Want to Make Genetically Engineered Babies. What Could Go Wrong?

By Grace Won, KQED Forum [with CGS' Katie Hasson] | 12.02.2025

Aggregated News

In the U.S., it’s illegal to edit genes in human embryos with the intention of creating a genetically engineered baby...

Genetic Selection

Biopolitical Times

Public Health, Vaccines and Modern Eugenics

By Pete Shanks | 02.27.2026

Last month, we published “The Shameful Legacy of Tuskegee” which focused on a proposed experiment in Guinea-Bissau. The...

Bioethics

The Shameful Legacy of Tuskegee Is Still Relevant

By Pete Shanks | 01.28.2026

Group of Tuskegee Experiment test subjects
Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons

Every generation needs to learn about what is commonly...

U.S. Federal

Some of Our Favorite 2025 Blog Posts

By Pete Shanks | 01.06.2026

Following a long-standing CGS tradition, we present a selection of our favorite Biopolitical Times posts of the past year.

In...

Policies

News

A Billionaire-Backed Startup Wants to Grow 'Organ Sacks' to Replace Animal Testing

By Emily Mullin, Wired | 03.23.2026

As the Trump administration phases out the use of animal experimentation across the federal government, a biotech startup has a bold idea for an alternative to animal testing: nonsentient “organ sacks.”

Bay Area-based R3 Bio has been quietly pitching the...

Human Genetic Modification

The gen AI Kool-Aid tastes like eugenics

By Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge | 03.21.2026

Like many people, director Valerie Veatch was intrigued when OpenAI first released its Sora text-to-video generative AI model to the public in 2024. Though she didn’t fully understand the technology, she was curious about what it could do, and she...

U.S. States

As Trump administration cracks down on health care fraud, people with disabilities feel singled out

By O. Rose Broderick, Stat | 03.18.2026

The Trump administration has zeroed in on its next target: ending health care fraud.

President Trump announced Monday the creation of a task force devoted to ending fraud, waste, and abuse in all federal benefits. On Tuesday, the administration expanded...

U.S. States

A judge shot down RFK Jr.’s vaccine overhaul. The fight is far from over

By Garrett Owen, Salon | 03.18.2026

Key parts of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial vaccine overhaul were blocked on Monday by a federal judge in Massachusetts.

In a 45-page ruling, Judge Brian Murphy, a Biden appointee, ruled that...

U.S. Federal

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