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

Update, June 27, 2024: Spanish and German translations of the Social Justice and Human Rights Principles for Global Deliberations on...

Global Governance

Biopolitical Times

What Is Up With the FDA? What Comes Next?

By Pete Shanks | 07.18.2024

Image courtesy National Human Genome Research Institute

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is supposed to encourage effective medical...

Stem Cells

Precious DNA

By Isabelle Bartram | 07.17.2024

Image by Kuzzat Altay from Unsplash

Uyghurs, a predominantly Muslim minority in China, are mainly located in the autonomous region...

Other Countries

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

News

Disabled Bodies and Enabling The Creation of The Medical Genetics Profession

By Robert Resta, The DNA Exchange | 07.22.2024

Medical geneticists and genetic counselors have an often complicated and at times tense relationship with people with disabilities, their families, advocates, and scholars. Geneticists are strong advocates and supporters for all of their patients, regardless of their abilities and disabilities...

Genomics

The fertility industry: profiting from vulnerability

By Editorial Staff, The Lancet | 07.20.2024

Image by DrKontogianniIVF from Wikimedia Commons

Despite major advances in securing sexual and reproductive rights globally, one aspect is continually neglected: infertility. Evolving gender norms and financial precariousness have led to delayed childbearing, which increases infertility in both males and...

Genetic Selection

JD Vance's "Hillbilly Elegy" ignores the real Appalachian crisis it portrays

By Mesha Maren , Salon | 07.20.2024

Image by Gage Skidmore from Flickr licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

I started reading JD Vance's 2016 memoir "Hillbilly Elegy" on election day, 2020. I didn’t plan it this way. I’d been asked to review the film and I...

Human Genetic Modification

Dawn of the Silicon Valley Superbaby

By Julia Black and Margaux MacColl, The Information [cites CGS' Katie Hasson] | 07.19.2024

When venture capitalist Jack Abraham first began dating his wife, Gabriella Massamillo, he insisted on one condition: that when they were ready to have children, she’d be willing to conceive using in vitro fertilization. Abraham had lost both his mother...

Genetic Selection

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