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Dear Biopolitical Times readers,
This month's newsletter is coming to you at a time of great uncertainty and challenge due to the COVID-19 outbreak. We send it along with our support for all of you, and our particular thoughts for those immediately affected and most vulnerable.
The Center for Genetics and Society team |
To ensure delivery, please add [email protected] to your address book or contacts.
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Katie Hasson Debates in Doha
On March 11, CGS’ Program Director for Genetic Justice Katie Hasson participated in a 2020 Doha Debate titled “Future of Genetics—Should We Create Superhumans?” that drew 4.9 million Twitter viewers. Appearing onstage with Ghida Fakhry, Julian Savulescu, and Jamie Metzl, Katie addressed questions about “the long-term challenges and opportunities CRISPR presents,” and highlighted the social justice and human rights implications of heritable genome editing. Watch the debate here!
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Marcy Darnovsky Gives TEDx Talk
CGS Executive Director Marcy Darnovsky delivered a TEDx Talk at Laguna Blanca School in Santa Barbara titled “Use Gene Editing to Treat Patients, Not Design Babies.” Beginning with an explanation of where the debate stands now, she laid out the case against heritable genome editing, citing social justice and equity concerns that are often obscured in scientific discussions about the technology. You can watch Marcy’s talk here.
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'Perspectives' on Heritable Human Genome Editing
Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 03.06.2020
Perspectives in Biology and Medicine recently published a special issue on CRISPR. The contributors represent an unusually wide variety of backgrounds and perspectives, and include CGS’ Marcy Darnovsky and Katie Hasson. The journal’s goal is to publish “essays that place important biological or medical subjects in broader scientific, social, or humanistic contexts,” which is exactly what this issue offers for the gene-editing debate.
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The Anglo-American Threat of a Eugenics Revival
Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 02.21.2020
The resignation of a junior advisor to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for advocating eugenics sparked discussion on both sides of the Atlantic and highlighted the worrying trend that eugenics may be becoming normalized again. Given this trend, it is vitally important to denounce and oppose both the revival of old-school eugenic attitudes and the introduction of new high-tech and consumer-driven varieties of eugenics.
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Genetic Justice: Identity and Equality in the Biotech Age (full access)
Katie Hasson and Marcy Darnovsky, Development | 01.14.2020
In the context of growing nationalism, popularizing the idea that “‘nationality”’ and “‘roots”’ are determined by genetics is a dangerous practice. As CGS’ Katie Hasson and Marcy Darnovsky argue, genetic ancestry testing not only reinforces the belief that race is a biological category, it opens the door for misuse of genetic data, and may even help pave the way for higher social tolerance for human germline modification.
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Professor Calls for Caution Around Gene Editing in Human Embryos
Jim Barlow, Around the O | 03.03.2020
University of Oregon professor Leah Lowthorp is one of the authors of “The Geneva Statement on Heritable Human Genome Editing: The Need for Course Correction.” A cultural anthropologist and former CGS staff member, Lowthorp explores the online folklore of human genetic and assisted reproductive technologies, including the relationship between the hyperbole and public skepticism of scientific claims related to CRISPR technology.
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Designer Babies: Rogue Science or Future Option?
Dolli Player and Alicia Matsuura, The Daily Universe | 02.18.2020
The ability to modify the human germline was once a distant prospect but, with the discovery of CRISPR - CAS9, scientists no longer question whether they can but whether they should. CGS Executive Director Marcy Darnovsky points out that, were this technology made available, wealthy parents would use germline editing to “get a leg up for their kid by dropping an extra $100,000 at a fertility clinic,” thereby exacerbating social inequalities.
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Egg-Freezing: What's the Success Rate?
BBC News | 02.17.2020
Egg-freezing is marketed more widely than ever, but reported rates of pregnancy and birth from frozen-eggs vary significantly depending on the source, with some estimates as low as 1 percent. Why?
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OHSS, the IVF Side-Effect Making Women's Fertility Journeys 'Agony'
Sophie Wilkinson,The Huffington Post UK | 02.08.2020
The in-vitro fertilization industry is booming, but few patients are aware that the hormone treatments they must undergo can cause life-threatening health problems like Ovarian Hyper-Stimulation Syndrome and even compromise the integrity of harvested eggs.
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Eugenic Sperm
Karen Weingarten, Nursing Clio | 02.24.2020
The history of reproductive technologies is rooted in eugenic practices in ways that have become invisible today.
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Doctors Try 1st CRISPR Editing in the Body for Blindness
The Associated Press, The New York Times | 03.04.2020
Doctors at the Casey Eye Institute at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland say they have used CRISPR for the first time to “operate” on the genes of a patient with an inherited form of blindness.
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How to Build a Genome
Michael Eisenstein, Nature | 02.24.2020
While it is certainly not cheap or easy, building genomes “from the ground up” for organisms like bacteria and yeast is now possible, given enough time and resources.
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Stalked by the Fear That Dementia Is Stalking You
Judith Graham, The New York Times | 02.20.2020
For people who have lost family members to dementia, fear of what lurks in their genes can preoccupy daily life. Some wonder if they should get tested for the APOE4 gene, although many doctors advise against it.
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N.Y.P.D. to Remove DNA Profiles of Non-Criminals From Database
Edgar Sandoval, The New York Times | 02.20.2020
For years, New York City has added to a local database of DNA, collecting samples not just from people convicted of crimes, but from people arrested or questioned, including minors. Now, under community pressure, they’re changing their practices.
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When Your Ancestry Test Entangles Others
Amy Dockser Marcus, Wall Street Journal | 02.14.2020
The unfiltered nature of DNA testing raises numerous questions about how to balance access to information with safeguards for privacy.
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