CGS Collaborates with Advocates and Scholars on Genetic Justice

From the gene editing summit to our recent webinar, CGS has been even busier than usual in the first half of 2023. And we have big news: Ford Foundation has recognized CGS with a grant supporting our work challenging eugenics and fostering disability inclusion in society. The CGS team deeply appreciate this generous recognition of our efforts.

So far this year, we’ve been expanding our collaborations with advocates and scholars committed to social justice; monitoring, analyzing, and commenting on policy, political, and technical developments; and working to deepen understanding by policymakers, journalists, and the general public about the social meanings and consequences of human biotechnologies.

Before, during and after the Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing, held in London on March 4–6, CGS and allies worked to ensure that social justice concerns could not be ignored. Genetic Justice from Start to Summit, a two-part virtual symposium, still available on our website and YouTube, drew hundreds of registrants from 26 countries. In late March, CGS presented the latest in the Missing Voices Initiative webinar series, Feminist Intersections: Reproductive Genome Editing at a Crossroads.

Associate Director Katie Hasson attended the London Summit and side events organized by allied civil society organizations. Our comments were included in media coverage of the Summit from Wired, NPR, and Australian Broadcasting.

Katie also attended a National Academies Workshop on In Vitro Derived Human Gametes (IVG) as a Reproductive Technology, and was quoted by USA Today. IVG is rapidly becoming a front-line issue, as is the use of Polygenic Risk Scores for Embryo Selection. Marcy Darnovsky contributed invited remarks about the impacts of heritable gene editing on the future of the disability community at a comment session hosted by the National Council on Disability.

CGS has exciting plans for the rest of the year. To make sure you don’t miss any of it, subscribe to our newsletter, follow us on Twitter, and keep in touch. Your dedication and generosity keep CGS going and we are deeply grateful. Please join us in the fight for genetic justice!