The latest from the Center for Genetics and Society     DONATE September 30, 2023     Reproduction and Family Formation: The State and the Market CGS Consultant Emily Galpern spoke at the Black Women for Wellness Reproductive Justice Conference about deep disparities between the people most directly affected by state control of reproduction and those with privilege who can access privatized, high-cost fertility services to form their families. Watch the video of her presentation here.         Is Berkeley Paying Attention to the Risks of its Biotech Boom? A letter to Berkeley city officials from Biolab Watch, an informal network of concerned citizens and civil society groups, objects to the lack of transparency and community involvement in assessing biolab risks, including leaks of infectious organisms that could endanger lab workers and communities.       Another profile of the CRISPR-babies guy: What The New Yorker adds to the story––and leaves out Katie Hasson, Biopolitical Times | 09.29.2023 A recent high-profile article on heritable genome editing in The New Yorker showcases the significance of the ongoing debate about the prospect of editing the genes of future generations. But is the conversation drifting in concerning directions?   Natalism and Hipster Eugenics Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 09.14.2023 Some tech elites who espouse effective altruism and longtermism are also promoting a pronatalist agenda at an upcoming “Natal Conference.” A veneer of concern about falling birth rates masks their support for techno-eugenics.   GENE EDITING | EUGENICS | GENOMICS ASSISTED REPRODUCTION | SURROGACY360 | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE   GENE EDITING Genetically Modified Pig’s Heart Is Transplanted Into a Second Patient Roni Caryn Rabin, The New York Times | 09.22.2023 Surgeons in Baltimore have transplanted the heart of a genetically altered pig into a man with terminal heart disease. It is the second such procedure performed by the surgeons, whose first patient died two months after the pig-heart transplant procedure. Super-precise CRISPR tool enters US clinical trials for the first time Heidi Ledford, Nature | 09.18.2023 The first US clinical trial of base editing will treat leukemia patients with immune cells that have four base-edited genes, meant to help them better target and destroy tumors. New paper lays out problems of developing gene-edited GM crops Claire Robinson, GMWatch | 08.30.2023 Despite a new paper that outlines the many technical problems with crop gene editing, scientists advising the UK government and the EU Commission on their GMO deregulatory agenda appear to overlook these cautionary facts.   EUGENICS Nazi Germany had admirers among American religious leaders – and white supremacy fueled their support Meghan Garrity and Melissa J. Wilde, The Conversation | 09.22.2023 Religious elites in the U.S. that supported the Nazis were not only eugenicists and anti-semitic, but also held strong racist beliefs of the inferiority of Black people. All three persist in far-right movements in the U.S. today. Eugenics and the Human/Animal Divide in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Leigha McReynolds, Tor | 09.19.2023 The eugenics movement misused Darwin’s theory of evolution to justify social and institutional violence against people not deemed “fit” to reproduce. A similar mistake is being made with applications of new genetic technologies. The Young Conservatives Trying to Make Eugenics Respectable Again Adam Serwer, The Atlantic | 09.15.2023 The resurgence of eugenic logics on the right demonstrates the stubborn appeal of scientific racism. Pernicious stereotypes are used to justify a lack of attention to historical and ongoing harms done to minoritized populations. California promised reparations to survivors of forced sterilization. Few people have gotten them. Shefali Luthra, The 19th News | 09.05.2023 The state's program to compensate survivors of forcible sterilization has approved payments to only 101 people, though hundreds more are believed to be eligible. The application deadline is this December. Revealed: US pro-birth conference’s links to far-right eugenicists Jason Wilson, The Guardian | 09.04.2023 The “Natal” conference, which will be held in Texas in December, claims to be about boosting global birth rates. The event will feature racist and eugenicist internet personalities and far-right media figures.   GENOMICS China’s quest for human genetic data spurs fears of a DNA arms race Joby Warrick and Cate Brown, The Washington Post | 09.22.2023 The Covid-19 pandemic gave China the chance to collect human genetic information from several foreign countries. The effort seems to be part of a broader effort to advance its biotech sector and develop strategic intelligence advances through highly suspect methods for amassing DNA information. The morally ground-shifting legacy of Ian Wilmut and Dolly the sheep Gregory E. Kaebnick, STAT | 09.15.2023 Besides being groundbreaking science, Dolly the cloned sheep was morally ground-shifting. Dolly symbolized growing human power over nature and a sense that science was running way ahead of ethics. The Aftermath of a ‘Miracle Cure’ for a Rare Cancer James Tabery, Wired | 09.04.2023 The leukemia drug Gleevec was hailed as a step forward for precision medicine. In fact, it has paved the way for drug companies to dramatically raise the prices of oncology and gene therapy drugs to boost their profits, while reducing access for patients.   ASSISTED REPRODUCTION ‘The state says our kids don’t exist’ - how LGBT life is changing in Italy Sofia Bettiza, BBC News | 09.23.2023 Italy’s far-right government is targeting LGBTQ families by removing parentage rights for families formed via surrogacy and by introducing a new law that would make surrogacy abroad a crime with hefty fines or prison time. One in 18 babies born in Australia are conceived via IVF, latest data shows Natasha May, The Guardian | 09.22.2023 According to a new report, Australia is one of the countries most dependent on assisted reproduction. The number of IVF cycles in Australia increased by 17% from 2020 to 2021, and a record 18,594 babies were born in Australia as a result of IVF treatment in 2021. People born by egg or sperm donor in UK will be able to find out biological origins PA Media, The Guardian | 09.18.2023 Dozens of young adults born via sperm or egg donation in the U.K. will be able to apply to find out more information about their donor, including their full name, date of birth, and last known address, starting in October. Human trials of artificial wombs could start soon. Here’s what you need to know Max Kozlov, Nature | 09.14.2023 Researchers at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia are seeking FDA approval for the first human clinical trials of artificial womb technology. They hope the invention can help support the development of premature babies. Barred from freezing their eggs at home, single Chinese women are traveling elsewhere Carina Cheng, Oliver Hu and Larissa Gao, NBC News | 09.04.2023 In China, unmarried women are legally barred from freezing their eggs, prompting some to do it elsewhere at a much greater cost in a bid to extend their reproductive window. British women turn to IVF clinics in Greece and Turkey to avoid higher costs Sarah Marsh, The Guardian | 09.01.2023 A growing number of Britons are traveling to Greece, Turkey, and the Czech Republic for lower-cost fertility treatments, but they often face challenges, including differing regulations for donor gametes abroad. Waiting Room Alison Motluk, Hazlitt | 08.30.2023 The lack of regulations governing Canadian surrogacy arrangements allows clinics to adopt shady practices that leave surrogates and families vulnerable to costly exploitation. Despite some intended parents’ attempts to alert authorities to potentially illegal conduct at one clinic over the past decade, neither extensive investigations of clinic practices nor legislative review has resulted.   SURROGACY 360   ‘Ghost parents’: Same-sex couples in Italy are losing their rights Lara Bullens, France24 | 09.14.2023 Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has demanded local councils only list biological parents on birth certificates. Same-sex couples who may lose their parentage rights discuss the dangerous impacts their families will face.   ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE The AI heretic Aki Ito, Insider | 09.18.2023 A prominent MIT economist is sounding the alarm that AI innovations may do more harm than good. Massive power disparities between workers and their employers make it unlikely that AI will benefit more than an elite few. What OpenAI Really Wants Steven Levy, Wired | 09.05.2023 Founded as a nonprofit that promised to make AI safe by "sharing it with the world," OpenAI is now a for-profit company reportedly valued at almost $30 billion. It sees its products ChatGPT and GPT-4 as "just the start" to "thrusting humanity into an era of unimaginable bounty." Critics and some insiders point to the risks of AI-driven job loss, misinformation, and even human extinction. The fight over a ‘dangerous’ ideology shaping AI debate AFP, France24 | 08.28.2023 Longtermism, along with linked ideologies like transhumanism and effective altruism, hold huge sway in Silicon Valley. They have helped to frame the debate on artificial intelligence around the idea of human extinction, obscuring their own ties to eugenics and directing attention away from the harms of AI on marginalized communities.   If you’ve read this far, you clearly care about the fight to reclaim human biotechnologies for the common good. Thank you!  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