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The tech billionaires and rogue scientists moving to commercialize CRISPR babies
Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical Times | 6.26.2025
Undeterred by the near-global policy consensus against heritable genome editing and the widespread concerns about a techno-eugenic future that it would enable, several tech billionaires are investing in private companies that explicitly aim to create genetically modified children. This new and more alarming phase of biotechnology misuse requires renewed resistance.
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Welcome, Matteo!
Matteo Zumbano, a rising junior at Hampshire College studying Public Health and Philosophy with a focus on Reproductive Health, Rights, and Justice, joins CGS this summer through Collective Power’s Collective Rising internship program. Through their work with CGS, Matteo hopes to gain a better understanding of how gene editing technologies relate to current eugenics and population control movements.
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The Post-Human Games
Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 6.26.2025
Steroid-supported sports have been debated––and dismissed––for decades. Transhumanists and biohackers, with the support of Peter Thiel and other Silicon Valley venture capitalists, are still trying to make the “Enhanced Games” happen.
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Remembering George Annas (1945-2025)
Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical Times | 06.17.2025
CGS mourns the loss of long-time colleague George Annas, a prolific speaker, writer, and scholar of health law. His legacy includes over 20+ years of collaboration with CGS to oppose heritable genome editing and voice concerns about the eugenic risks of reprogenetic technologies.
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HERITABLE HUMAN GENOME EDITING | GENE THERAPY | GENOMICS
EUGENICS | SURROGACY 360 | ASSISTED REPRODUCTION | VARIOUS
| | HERITABLE HUMAN GENOME EDITING | | |
‘Superbabies’ Startup Seeks Funds for Controversial Gene Editing Push
Sophie Alexander and Ike Swetlitz, Bloomberg | 06.25.2025
Despite the safety risks and the recent calls from scientists for a 10-year ban on heritable human genome editing, a California startup is raising funds to edit human embryos in a private lab. They are considering locating their lab in another country to escape U.S. regulatory oversight.
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Crypto billionaire Brian Armstrong is ready to invest in CRISPR baby tech
Antonio Regalado, MIT Technology Review | 06.05.2025
Crypto billionaire Brian Armstrong wants to fund an embryo editing startup, despite the practice being illegal in most countries and fraught with safety, ethical, and societal risks. Armstrong’s investment idea comes at the same time as gene editing scientists and industry groups are calling for a 10-year moratorium on heritable human genome editing.
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Gene Therapy Cuts Bleeding and Medicine for Hemophilia B Patients for Over a Decade
Briana Contreras, Managed Healthcare Executive | 06.17.2025
A study following patients for 13 years found that a viral-vector gene therapy that delivered a working F9 gene to the liver boosted long-term production of factor IX, the clotting protein missing in people with hemophilia B. The treatment reduced bleeding episodes and the need for regular infusions.
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Sarepta reports 2nd death after DMD gene therapy Elevidys, stops dosing in half of patients
Angus Liu, Fierce Pharma | 06.16.2025
A second teenage boy being treated with Sarepta’s gene therapy for Duchenne muscular dystrophy has died from liver failure, which is thought to have resulted from an immune reaction to the therapy’s viral vector. Sarepta has suspended treatment for non-ambulatory patients and is seeking FDA approval for an immunosuppressant measure to address risks of liver damage.
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Work begins to create artificial human DNA from scratch
Pallab Gosh and Gwyndaf Hughes, BBC News | 06.26.2025
A controversial research project, the “Synthetic Human Genome Project,” will attempt to make human DNA from scratch. The project purports to have therapeutic aims, but its insights could be misused to attempt to develop bioweapons or create “designer babies.”
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Dozens of states sue to block the sale of 23andMe personal genetic data
The Associated Press | 06.10.2025
27 states and the District of Columbia have filed a lawsuit to block 23andMe’s sale of personal genetic data without customer consent. The suit argues that such deeply personal information can’t be sold like ordinary property and should be under the control of customers.
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The US Is Storing Migrant Children’s DNA in a Criminal Database
Dhruv Mehrotra, Wired | 05.29.2025
The U.S. government’s biometric surveillance reaches further than was previously known. DNA samples from over 133,000 migrant children and teenagers—including at least one 4-year-old—have been added to a national criminal database used by local, state, and federal law enforcement.
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Parents Can Choose Genetic Makeup of Their Children With New IVF Option
Isabel van Brugen, Newsweek | 06.05.2025
Nucleus Genomics claims that its polygenic risk screening for IVF can not only predict the probability of an embryo later developing chronic conditions and cancers but also reveal eye color, BMI, and “IQ-related markers.” Critics question the eugenic aims of such testing.
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The Techno-Futuristic Philosophy Behind Elon Musk’s Mania
Matthew Purdy, The New York Times | 05.29.2025
Elon Musk is leaving government work behind, returning to his business ventures and the techno-futuristic philosophies motivating them. Musk’s longtermism claims to be concerned for future humanity––at the expense of society now.
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Donald Trump’s Decades-Long Obsession With Eugenics
Julia Métraux, Mother Jones | 05.28.2025
Trump’s obsession with IQ and comments about bad genes aren’t a recent phenomenon. His eugenicist mindset is evident from disparaging comments he made about people with disabilities dating back to the 1980s.
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Babies for sale: New Zealanders commissioning illegal surrogacy in Thailand
Jeremy Wilkinson, The New Zealand Herald | 05.31.2025
New Zealand’s ministry for children is raising concerns about New Zealanders travelling to Thailand to have children via surrogacy, where it is illegal, before bringing them home to legally adopt them. New Zealand’s outdated family laws contribute to difficulties addressing these practices.
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Bitter harvest — 30 years of broken GMO promises
Save Our Seeds and GMWatch | 06.23.2025
Bold claims about the potential for agricultural GMOs have fallen flat. Instead of helping farmers and reducing environmental harms, they have led to more chemical-dependent monocultures, more environmental damage, and tighter corporate control over seeds and inputs.
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People With Severe Diabetes Are Cured in Small Trial of New Drug
Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 06.20.2025
A single infusion of a stem cell-based treatment may have cured 10 of 12 people with the most severe form of type 1 diabetes. One year later, these 10 patients no longer need insulin, and the other two patients need much lower doses.
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Inside the AI Party at the End of the World
Kylie Robison, Wired | 06.11.2025
At a recent symposium in San Francisco, AI researchers, philosophers, and technologists who embrace predictions that superintelligent AI is imminent heard proposals that AGI ought to be considered a “successor” to humanity.
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Kennedy Says ‘Charlatans’ Are No Reason to Block Unproven Stem Cell Treatments
Christina Jewett, The New York Times | 06.05.2025
RFK Jr. revealed his own use of an unproven stem cell procedure in Antigua and said he wanted to expand access to similar risky treatments. The change, if enacted, would reverse FDA policies that regulate clinics offering dangerous stem cell treatments.
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Trump Taps Palantir to Compile Data on Americans
Sheera Frenkel and Aaron Krolik, The New York Times | 05.30.2025
The Trump administration has quietly begun deploying technology from the company Palantir to merge and organize data in different government systems. The effort could signal that Trump is advancing his aim of a mass surveillance program of people in the U.S.
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