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Journalistic Hype of Investigator Hype?
Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 06.19.2023
Media coverage of a research team’s announcement regarding their development of human embryo-like models through reprogramming embryonic stem cells frames the advance as “groundbreaking,” but other scientists are more skeptical.
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Welcome, Ananya, and thanks, Coby!
CGS would like to welcome our incoming summer intern, Ananya Roy! Ananya is a 2023 Collective Rising Intern and currently studying Sociology and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University at Albany. We also extend our appreciation to outgoing intern, Coby Havazelet, for all of his work this spring!
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ELSI Friday Forum: Population Descriptors in Genomic Research: Applying the NASEM Recommendations
July 14, 2023 at 12:00 pm ET
In a conversation moderated by CGS Advisory Board member Dorothy Roberts, authors of the recent National Academies report on the use of racial categories in genomics research will discuss: What are population descriptors? How can their selection entrench typological thinking and undermine scientific rigor? How can we better align the appropriate use of population descriptors with genomic research objectives? Register here.
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Derrière l’intelligence artificielle, le retour d’utopies technologiques
Alexandre Piquard, Le Monde | 06.13.2023
Tech sector leaders including Sam Altman and Elon Musk are adopting Promethean—even messianic—tones, and promoting ideas inspired by transhumanism and long-termism, which many consider dangerous. Marcy Darnovsky notes that ideas about transhumanism and "tailor-made" babies with selected genes resonate both among Republicans and Democrats.
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CGS collaborates with advocates and scholars on genetic justice
CGS Staff, Biopolitical Times | 06.14.2023
From the gene editing summit to our recent webinar, CGS has been even busier than usual in the first half of 2023. We are delighted to announce that our efforts have been recognized by the Ford Foundation with a grant supporting our work challenging eugenics and fostering disability inclusion in society.
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HERITABLE GENE EDITING | ARTIFICIAL GAMETES AND EMBRYOS | GENE THERAPIES
GENOMICS | EUGENICS | ASSISTED REPRODUCTION | SURROGACY360 | VARIOUS
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His baby gene editing shocked ethicists. Now he's in the lab again
John Ruwitch, NPR | 06.08.2023
Disgraced researcher He Jiankui is attempting to rehabilitate his reputation, setting up a new lab to develop gene therapies for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Critics are concerned, given his past gene-editing transgressions and lack of medical expertise.
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Most advanced synthetic human embryos yet spark controversy
Philip Ball, Nature | 06.16.2023
Two teams of scientists have announced that they have grown embryo-like structures, made entirely from human stem cells, that are more advanced than any previous efforts. They raise ethical and legal questions about the status of such ‘embryo models’ and how they should be regulated.
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Synthetic human embryos created in groundbreaking advance
Hannah Devlin, The Guardian | 06.14.2023
Scientists have created synthetic, early-stage human embryos using stem cells instead of gametes. Although there is no near-term prospect of the synthetic embryos being used clinically, the work raises serious ethical and legal issues.
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Creating a sperm or egg from any cell? Reproduction revolution on the horizon
Rob Stein, NPR | 05.27.2023
At a workshop organized by the US National Academies of Sciences, dozens of scientists, bioethicists, doctors, and others discussed the latest scientific advances in lab-created gametes, and explored the technology’s potentially far-reaching thicket of social, ethical, moral, legal and regulatory ramifications.
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The quest for the era of personalised medicine
David Cox, BBC | 06.04.2023
In theory, personalized gene therapies should be more effective and have fewer side effects. In practice, personalized medicine can be erratic and expensive, and often there are simpler solutions.
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High on Selling Hope, Less So on Production of Revolutionary Therapies
David Jensen, California Stem Cell Report | 06.04.2023
Developing cutting-edge therapies is an enormously expensive task: the $12 billion CA stem cell and gene therapy program has yet to finance an approved stem cell or gene therapy treatment during its 18 years of work, despite the expenditure of $3.5 billion from CA taxpayers.
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Gene Therapy in the Womb Is Inching Closer to Reality
Max G. Levy, Wired | 05.22.2023
Researchers are testing new techniques for delivering gene therapies in utero on lab animals. One delivery technique shows that these therapies, when injected, could risk accidental germline edits.
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The FDA just approved rub-on gene therapy that helps “butterfly” children
Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review | 05.19.2023
The FDA approved a new gene therapy ointment that provides a missing gene to skin cells so they can make collagen. It is the first gene therapy for sale that is applied to the outside of a patient’s body and the first intended to be used on the same person repeatedly.
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Cells, Not DNA, Are The Master Architects Of Life
Alfonso Martinez Arias, Noema | 05.30.2023
A shift in our understanding of how we are made and who we are is underway: Genes, rather than determining every detail of biology, are integrated into the activity of cells.
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Sought Out by Science, and Then Forgotten
Jennie Erin Smith, The New York Times | 05.23.2023
Four decades ago, medical researchers reached out to ailing families in Colombia because they hold clues to genetic modifiers of, and potential treatments for, Huntington’s disease. Yet they remain cut off from experimental treatments, genetic counseling, and often basic medical care.
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A major group of family genealogists apologizes for past racism
Sydney Trent, The Washington Post | 05.31.2023
One of the nation’s oldest and largest genealogical societies apologized for its history of racism, which includes a eugenicist founder, Joseph Gaston Baillie Bulloch, and early resistance to integration.
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Eugenics influenced the formulation of the European Convention on Human Rights
Torsten Hjelmar, The European Times | 05.27.2023
The concept of ‘unsound mind’ has its roots in eugenic thinking and has supported discrimination against people with disabilities. Marius Turda argues that “it is therefore highly problematic to continue to use this expression in the Convention on Human Rights.”
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What Can Feminists Make of the Eugenicist History of Abortion?
Erika Rodriguez, Minnesota Women’s Press | 05.24.2023
Rather than using the history of abortion and eugenics as a justification for restricting abortion, we should interrogate the lingering ties between abortion and eugenics and ask ourselves: How can reproductive justice also be disability justice?
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Georgia to ban surrogacy for foreigners
Nini Gabritchidze, Eurasianet | 06.13.2023
The country of Georgia, which recently became an international surrogacy hub, moved to ban surrogacy for foreigners. The Prime Minister cited safety concerns for surrogates and children and trafficking risks, and expressed sentiments discriminatory toward same-sex couples.
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Ukraine Considers Surrogacy Regulations In Wartime
Ellen Trachman, Above the Law | 05.31.2023
In April 2023, the Ukrainian parliament considered and ultimately rejected legislation that would have paused surrogacy arrangements with foreign intended parents during wartime.
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The Who, Where, and How of Regulating AI
Eliza Strickland, IEEE Spectrum | 06.15.2023
The rapid development of artificial intelligence has brought new efforts in the European Union, the U.S., Canada, Brazil, and China to regulate it.
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Transhumanism and Neuralink: the dawn of digitally enhanced humans
Neil C. Hughes, Cybernews | 06.10.2023
Elon Musk’s Neuralink has FDA approval to initiate a clinical trial of its brain implant technology, an exciting development for transhumanists––but an alarming one for those concerned about the implant’s many potential pitfalls.
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Inside the quest to engineer climate-saving “super trees”
Boyce Upholt, MIT Technology Review | 06.08.2023
A Silicon Valley startup is using genetic modification to increase the carbon uptake of trees, but questions remain: how will these trees affect the rest of the forest? How far will their genes spread? And how good are they at pulling carbon from the atmosphere?
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