Welcome to CGS

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

Reproductive Tech That Promises Smart Babies Is Peddling Soft Eugenics

By Tania Fabo, Truthout | 02.28.2026

The reproductive tech company Orchid recently launched a genetic test that promises a whole genome sequencing report for embryos. It is the first such test commercially available to couples undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF) and claims to detect things like...

Society

"Looksmaxxing" is teaching men that pretty hurts.

By Brittany Luse, Corey Antonio Rose, Neena Pathak, NPR | 02.27.2026

Who gets to be "hot" in America? And, at what cost?

Some young men are pushing beauty boundaries with guidance from an online trend that's been making headlines: looksmaxxing. Looksmaxxing celebrates intense fitness & skincare routines, extreme body modification, and...

Society