The latest from the Center for Genetics and Society     DONATE August 22, 2024 While our newsletter team takes a brief summer break, enjoy these stories about genetic justice in an election season and CGS’ busy year so far...         Recent Biopolitical News: Ethics, Guidelines, History, and Pure Fantasy Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 07.31.2024 From reports of Elon Musk volunteering his sperm to seed a colony on Mars to the return of He Jiankui as China releases new regulations on heritable genome editing, it’s been a busy couple of months in biopolitics.      THE 2024 U.S. ELECTION As the upcoming presidential election looms, the eugenic thinking and pronatalism of Donald Trump, and now JD Vance, are more evident than ever. CGS continues to illuminate the links between Trump’s rhetoric, eugenics, and his Silicon Valley supporters. Fluctuating Fortunes of Techno-Prophets Pete Shanks Biopolitical Times | 07.02.2024 The Remarkable Ambitions of Peter Thiel Pete Shanks Biopolitical Times | 02.23.2022 Trump's “Racehorse Theory” and Why It Matters J. Kahn, M. Darnovsky, and J. Marks Biopolitical Times | 10.05.2020   EUGENICS New biotechnologies are reviving and repackaging harmful eugenic ideas. These stories are part of CGS’ work to uncover and stop the insidious legacies of eugenics in science, technology, medicine, and public health.     Legacies of Eugenics A new series of essays on eugenics in science, medicine, and technology launched in the Los Angeles Review of Books. The series is organized by Osagie Obasogie, and supported by the Center for Genetics and Society, the Nova Institute for Health, the Othering & Belonging Institute, and UC Berkeley School of Public Health. Obasogie’s introductory essay explores how eugenics lingers in the 21st century. In the second essay of the series, Aubrey Clayton excavates the troubling correlation between the birth of statistical methods and the history of eugenics. The third essay, just released today, is "Breeding for IQ" by Emily Merchant.     Dawn of the Silicon Valley Superbaby Julia Black & Margaux MacColl The Information | 07.19.2024 cites CGS' Katie Hasson Eugenics: Still a fool's errand Emma McDonald Kennedy Biopolitical Times | 07.11.2024 Population Bomb, Great Replacement Theory, and Pronatalism Kyla Rosin Biopolitical Times | 06.27.2024   HUMAN GENE EDITING Heritable genome editing is prohibited in 70+ countries, but enthusiasts are pushing to change that. CGS continues our work to raise awareness of the significant safety, ethical, and societal risks, and to bring social justice and human rights to the center of policy and public discussions.   CGS’ Gender Justice and Disability Rights Coalition released the Social Justice and Human Rights Principles for Global Deliberations on Heritable Human Genome Editing. The principles are available in English, German or Spanish. Learn more about their development and the 70+ individuals and organizations that have endorsed the document.     The National Council on Disability released From Fetal Surgery to Gene Editing: The Current and Potential Impact of Prenatal Interventions on People with Disabilities outlining a disability rights critique of heritable gene editing and other "prenatal interventions.” CGS Executive Director Marcy Darnovsky and several CGS allies served as key informants.     CGS Associate Director Katie Hasson discussed the relevance of the movie Gattaca to social and ethical implications of today’s developing human genetic technologies as part of the “Science on Screen” series at Smith Rafael Film Center.     “Untangling CRISPR’s Twisted Tales,” an essay by CGS’ Marcy Darnovsky and Katie Hasson in The Promise and Peril of CRISPR (edited by Neal Baer) was published by Johns Hopkins University Press.     HIGHLIGHTING GUEST CONTRIBUTORS The CGS blog, Biopolitical Times, features timely posts by CGS staff and guest contributors that bring social justice and human rights perspectives to wide-ranging topics in human genetic and reproductive technologies. Read about two of our guest contributors and their work below.     Emily Beitiks is Interim Director of the Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University and member of CGS’ Missing Voices Initiative Working Group. The Unexpected Plight of Whistleblowers: Reflections on The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Cost of Saying No by Carl Elliott Biopolitical Times | 05.10.2024   Isabelle Bartram is Program Director at the Gen-ethisches Netzwerk e.V. in Berlin and member of CGS’ Gender Justice and Disability Rights Coalition on Heritable Genome Editing. Precious DNA: Unethical research on oppressed Uyghur population continues Biopolitical Times | 07.17.2024 Germline Editing: Made in Germany? Biopolitical Times | 03.13.2024   Support CGS with a donation today! 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