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A Pronatalist Vision of Humanity’s Future
Shrese, Biopolitical Times | 01.07.2025
For those wondering what kind of world pronatalists are trying to build, one of the principal public proponents of pronatalism, Simone Collins, sums it up in a recent video: “We’re elitist and we believe in genes.”
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Heartfelt thanks for powering our work
Your generosity, including several large last-minute gifts, rocketed us way beyond our 2024 goal. We are deeply grateful to the many colleagues, friends, and subscribers like you, who together contributed nearly $47,000 to our Giving Tuesday and end-of-year fundraising campaigns. Stay tuned to see what your support makes possible.
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Briefly Noted: Eugenics in Nature
Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 01.23.2025
A recent publication in Nature brings up and then dismisses concerns of eugenics in its discussion of heritable polygenic editing of embryos, even as fertility clinics clamor to develop and sell eugenic technologies.
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Some Notable 2024 Blog Posts
CGS Staff, Biopolitical Times | 01.01.2025
Contributors to CGS’ Biopolitical Times offered unique perspectives and insights on the social and eugenic implications of human gene editing and reproductive technologies. Take a look at some of our top posts from the year here.
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GENE EDITING | EUGENICS
ASSISTED REPRODUCTION | SURROGACY360 | VARIOUS
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Gene editor may have cured infant of a deadly metabolic disorder
Jocelyn Kaiser, Science | 01.14.2025
A little-known CRISPR alternative that uses a DNA-cutting enzyme has been developed with help from the disgraced geneticist James Wilson. Reports suggest that the technique may have resolved a 1-year old boy’s deadly metabolic disorder.
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Epigenetics and Heritable Control of Gene Expression
Rebecca Roberts, The Scientist | 12.18.2024
Epigenome editing seeks to alter or remove inherited epigenetic marks that play a role in the development of various diseases by affecting how genes are expressed.
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Eugenics Isn’t Dead—It’s Thriving in Tech
Julia Métraux, Mother Jones | 01.02.2025
A new book by information sciences and media studies professor Anita Say Chan traces how 20th-century eugenics and Big Tech today both falsely cast minorities, migrants, and disabled people as the “undeserving poor” with specious appeals to data and “science.”
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Aspiring Parents Have a New DNA Test to Obsess Over
Kristen V. Brown, The Atlantic | 01.15.2025
Despite scientific consensus that polygenic risk scores don’t provide useful insights into a person’s future health, companies including Genomic Prediction and Orchid claim they can test IVF embryos and allow parents to have the “healthiest” baby.
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“Who Does 11 Rounds of IVF? Me, Apparently.”
Melissa Dahl, Slate | 01.13.2025
People undergoing IVF often face difficult decisions about when to stop trying. Clinics rarely emphasize that IVF is not a guarantee or advise patients when their chances of success are low.
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Inside the strange limbo facing millions of IVF embryos
Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review | 01.13.2025
With IVF growing in popularity, the number of embryos created in the process is increasing as well. Weak and absent regulation means that no one knows how many millions—or potentially tens of millions—are stored in cryopreservation tanks around the world.
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Filipino surrogates receive royal pardon
Tatiana Giovannucci, PET | 01.13.2025
Thirteen women from the Philippines acting as surrogates in Cambodia were convicted under Cambodian human trafficking laws, but received royal pardons. All of them were repatriated to the Philippines––some with children they birthed as a result of the surrogacy arrangements.
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Biden Is About to Hand Over a Vast and Unconstitutional DNA Database to Trump
Emily Tucker, Truthout | 01.07.2025
Over the last four years, ICE and Customs and Border Patrol have been conducting “mass biological surveillance” by taking DNA samples from people they detain, often without their knowledge. The samples are stored indefinitely, with little regulation to limit what the federal government can do with the data.
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