June 3, 2019
Eugenics
May 28, 2019
Fertility Clinics Around the World Asked ‘CRISPR Babies’ Scientist for How-To Help
May 27, 2019
IVF Couples Could Be Able to Choose the ‘Smartest’ Embryo
May 23, 2019
‘We As A Species Need to Come to Terms’ with CRISPR Technology as China Awaits Birth of Third Genetically Modified Baby
May 21, 2019
The Disturbing Resilience of Scientific Racism
May 1, 2019
Will Gene-Editing of Human Embryos Ever Be Justifiable?
(News-Medical) – World-leading medical ethicist Professor Arthur Caplan has published a series of recommendations with the aim of addressing worldwide concerns over gene editing of human embryos. The article, which was recently published in the journal PLoS Biology, was fuelled … Read More
April 26, 2019
How to Prepare for a Future of Gene-Edited Babies–Because It’s Coming
(Smithsonian) – It really feels to me like the world of science fiction and science fact are, in many ways, converging,” says Jamie Metzl. The polymath would know—he’s an expert on Asian foreign relations who served in the State Department, … Read More
April 25, 2019
While Bioethics Fiddles
(The New Atlantis) – In the past, embryonic stem cells were used for these experiments. But researchers have begun to favor a relatively recent innovation: induced pluripotent stem cells, which have essentially the same properties as embryonic stem cells but … Read More
April 25, 2019
Japan Apologizes to Victims of Forced Sterilization
(The Guardian) – Japan’s government has issued an apology and awarded compensation to thousands of people with disabilities who were forcibly sterilised under a now defunct eugenics law. As part of legislation that passed parliament’s upper house on Wednesday, surviving … Read More
April 22, 2019
Genetic Basis of Obesity Carries Weight
(GEN) – There are, undoubtedly, many factors that go into a person’s weight. A new report from the lab of Sekar Kathiresan, MD, director of the Center for Genomic Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), documents a clear biologic basis … Read More
April 19, 2019
U.S. Researcher Says He’s Ready to Start Four Pregnancies with ‘Three-Parent’ Embryos
(STAT News) – Researchers at Columbia University in New York have created embryos containing genetic material from three people and are ready to use them to start pregnancies. But they’re at a legal impasse. At a public forum at Harvard … Read More
April 17, 2019
Human Gene Editing Is Controversial. Shoukhrat Mitalipov Isn’t Deterred
(Discover Magazine) – Off screen, the sperm vacuum makes a quick pit stop to grab an additional solution before appearing again, poised and ready. In a moment, the egg will be injected not only with sperm but with a dose … Read More
April 16, 2019
Sex-Selective Abortions May Have Stopped the Birth of 23 Million Girls
(New Scientist) – A huge analysis of worldwide population data suggests sex-selective abortions have led to at least 23 million fewer girls being born. The majority of these “missing” girls are in China and India. Many societies value sons over … Read More
April 16, 2019
George Church Wants to Make Genetic Matchmaking a Reality
(Discover Magazine) – Church imagines a variation of this program for couples everywhere. Existing social media and online dating sites could be modified to implement this kind of genetic matchmaking at a population scale — for all diseases. In Church’s … Read More
April 4, 2019
Belgium Apology for Mixed-Race Kidnappings in Colonial Era
(BBC) – Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel has apologised for the kidnapping of thousands of children born to mixed-race couples during colonial rule in Burundi, DR Congo and Rwanda. The “métis” children born to Belgian settlers and local women were … Read More
April 1, 2019
‘This Is What Nazis Wanted to Do’: Aussie Couples Are Spending $20,000 to Choose Eye Colour and Sex of Their Children
(Daily Mail) – Australian couples are spending $20,000 to choose the eye colour and sex of their ‘designer babies’ at an overseas clinic. But critics have slammed the practice, claiming it is reminiscent of ‘what the Nazis wanted to do’. … Read More
March 28, 2019
How Much Prenatal Genetic Information Do You Actually Want?
(Wired) – But what is available is something called noninvasive prenatal genetic screening (NIPT). Based on a blood sample from mom, they have been used for several years to tell expectant parents if their baby might have, say, a chromosomal … Read More
March 19, 2019
The Cost of Not Knowing a Huntington’s Diagnosis
(The Atlantic) – When Jennifer Leyton was going through IVF, her doctors would tell her very little. They turned off the ultrasound screen facing her so she could not count the number of eggs retrieved. They kept secret the number … Read More
March 15, 2019
Victims Sterilized Under Japan’s Eugenics Law to Get ¥3.2 Million Each Under State Redress Plan
(The Japan Times) – Ruling and opposition party lawmakers on Thursday decided on a bill to provide ¥3.2 million ($28,700) in state redress to every surviving victim of a state sterilization program that was conducted under a now-defunct 1948 eugenics … Read More
March 13, 2019
Adopt a Moratorium on Heritable Genome Editing
(Nature) – We call for a global moratorium on all clinical uses of human germline editing — that is, changing heritable DNA (in sperm, eggs or embryos) to make genetically modified children. By ‘global moratorium’, we do not mean a … Read More
March 11, 2019
Does the Rhetoric of Consumer Genetics Aim to Eliminate Disability Without Mentioning It?
(Science) – In 2011, poet and writer George Estreich wrote about the impact of biotechnology on family life in his first book, The Shape of the Eye. The memoir centers on how his family’s life was changed, and enriched, by … Read More
February 26, 2019
The CRISPR-Baby Scandal: What’s Next for Human Gene-Editing
(Nature) – In the three months since He Jiankui announced the birth of twin girls with edited genomes, the questions facing the scientific community have grown knottier. By engineering mutations into human embryos, which were then used to produce babies, … Read More
February 25, 2019
Chinese Government Funding May Have Been Used for ‘CRISPR Babies’ Project, Document Suggests
(STAT News) – Three government institutions in China, including the nation’s science ministry, may have funded the “CRISPR babies” study that led to the birth last November of two genetically modified twin girls, according to documents reviewed by STAT. These … Read More
February 25, 2019
He Jiankui’s Germline Editing Ethics Article Retracted by the CRISPR Journal
(Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News) – Twelve weeks after publishing a perspective on the ethics of gene editing by He Jiankui, PhD, the scientist reportedly responsible for the first gene-edited humans, the editors of The CRISPR Journal have decided to retract … Read More
February 21, 2019
China’s CRISPR Twins Might Have Had Their Brains Inadvertently Enhanced
(MIT Technology Review) – Now, new research shows that the same alteration introduced into the girls’ DNA, to a gene called CCR5, not only makes mice smarter but also improves human brain recovery after stroke, and could be linked to … Read More
