Email from The Center For Genetics and Society The latest from the Center for Genetics and Society     DONATE August 22, 2025       A New Eugenics Gold Rush? From designer babies to not-quite-designer jeans Katie Hasson, Biopolitical Times | 08.21.2025 From designer babies to designer(-ish) jeans, it seems we’re now on the verge of a eugenics gold rush. A clear rejection of eugenic logics and strong regulation based in social justice values are needed to push back on companies attempting to cash in on “better babies” and a genetically engineered future.     Exciting changes at CGS CGS is on the cusp of an exciting new chapter. After 13 intense, challenging, and deeply fulfilling years as executive director, Marcy Darnovsky will be retiring at the end of this month. Katie Hasson, currently CGS’ associate director, will step into the executive director role on September 1. Your support will boost CGS' impact in this new era. Stay tuned for plans to celebrate Marcy's leadership and many contributions.       The quest to create gene-edited babies gets a reboot Rob Stein, NPR | 08.06.2025 A new push from Silicon Valley investors on heritable genome editing threatens a future where we "mass-produce genetically engineered human beings,” warned CGS’ Katie Hasson. “I'm very worried that all of this together means we're headed straight into a new era of high-tech, market-based eugenics."       GMWatch on De-Extinction, Designer Babies, Gene Drives and More Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 08.21.2025 The latest review from GMWatch scrutinizes new biotech developments including gene drives, CRISPR babies, lab-grown sperm, and immortality projects. "What unites many of these is not just the massive gap between the myth making and the reality, but the immense financial and political leverage now propelling them forward."   New Guidelines on Trisomy 13 and 18 Promote Nuanced Care Decisions Matteo Zumbano, Biopolitical Times | 08.13.2025 New guidelines from the American Academy for Pediatrics mark a welcome shift away from ableist assumptions about children with trisomy 13 and trisomy 18. The guidelines support individually tailored and accessible care and counseling for their families.     POLYGENIC EMBRYO SCREENING | GENE EDITING AND GENOMICS IVG AND EMBRYO RESEARCH | EUGENICS | ASSISTED REPRODUCTION US FEDERAL POLICY | SURROGACY 360 | VARIOUS   POLYGENIC EMBRYO SCREENING Inside Silicon Valley’s Obsession With High-IQ Babies Zusha Elinson, The Wall Street Journal | 08.12.2025 Some Silicon Valley parents are increasingly enamored with technology that purports, without convincing evidence, to give them “smarter babies.” Some are willing to pay upwards of $50,000 for technologies that claim to screen embryos for IQ. The Myth of the Designer Baby—Why ‘Genetic Optimization’ Is More Hype Than Science Arthur Caplan and James Tabery, Scientific American | 07.28.2025 Nucleus Genomics’ touting of its “genetic optimization” technology provoked ethical outcry and comparisons to GATTACA, but the company is more akin to Theranos – it’s making unsubstantiated claims about polygenic risk scores that are not rooted in actual science.   GENE EDITING AND GENOMICS We Don’t Know if the Babies Born From Mitochondrial Replacement Therapy Will Still Develop Mitochondrial Disease Katherine Drabiak, Journal of Medical Ethics Forum | 08.07.2025 Media coverage of children born from pronuclear genome transfer (sometimes called “mitochondrial donation”) celebrated that the children were born “healthy,” overlooking both present unknowns about the mitochondria in their organs and future risks that they may develop mitochondrial disease. Blood taken from Danish babies ended up in huge genetic study—without consent Annika Inampudi, Science | 08.01.2025 Ethics committees in Denmark allowed genetic data collected at birth from 150,000 Danish people born between 1981 and 2008 to be used in research studies on psychiatric disorders without those individuals’ knowledge or consent. Now, they’re being notified and given the chance to opt out of future research. “CRISPR Meets GPT” to Supercharge Gene Editing Kristel Tjandra, Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News | 07.30.2025 “CRISPR-GPT” is an “AI agent” designed to interact with humans working on gene-editing. Researchers say the system can generate detailed protocols and troubleshoot potential errors. Some hope it will be a step toward fully automating gene editing. How far should “democratizing” gene editing go?   IVG AND EMBRYO RESEARCH George Church’s lab gets closer to creating human eggs in a dish, and a new startup plans to finish the job Ryan Cross, Endpoints News | 08.19.2025 A recent graduate from George Church's lab has co-founded a startup, which has raised over $2 million, to continue the lab's attempts at in vitro gametogenesis. They claim they'll "get to an egg in two years," but other researchers foresee complex problems ahead –– or a potential "dead end." If it’s time to revisit the 14-day rule, it’s also time to engage the public Molly Gray, Nuffield Council on Bioethics | 08.13.2025 The Nuffield Council on Bioethics is conducting a major public dialogue to explore public views and priorities on potential changes to the 14-day rule on human embryo research. Lab-grown embryo models are getting more realistic. Scientists are getting more concerned Kate Hunt, CNN | 07.31.2025 A proposed update to research guidelines would advise scientists not to use human embryo models for ectogenesis – the development of an embryo outside the human body via the use of artificial wombs. Are voluntary guidelines sufficient?   EUGENICS Baby Bonuses and Motherhood Medals: Why We Shouldn’t Trust the Pronatalist Movement National Women’s Law Center | 08.13.2025 A new report published by the National Women’s Law Center explores “the pronatalist movement, their history of eugenics and racism, the Trump administration’s concerning ties to the movement, and what we should be doing instead to support women and families.” Sydney Sweeney's ‘Great Jeans’ Illuminate the Dangerous Resurgence of Eugenics Tania Fabo, Newsweek | 08.06.2025 It was no accident that American Eagle’s recent ad campaign featured Sydney Sweeney, a blonde, blue-eyed, able-bodied all-American girl. It was about embracing the resurgence of eugenics in US politics by having the eugenic ideal of “good genes” wearing “good jeans.” Diagnosing Bias: Eugenics and the American Eagle Jeans Campaign Sayantani DasGupta, MedPage Today | 08.05.2025 Ads don’t just sell products; they sell values. American Eagle’s ad campaign isn’t just selling jeans, it’s also selling eugenics, race, and genetic determinism. The Rise of Silicon Valley’s Techno-Religion Cade Metz, The New York Times | 08.04.2025 Silicon Valley’s “Rationalists,” closely connected to effective altruism and artificial intelligence gambits, operate as a fundamentalist techno-religion, convincing adherents to “ignore their common sense about problems in the here and now in order to focus their attention on some fantastical future.” Genetics & the American Far Right: A conversation with Alexandra Minna Stern, PhD Susanna Smith, Genetic Frontiers | 07.28.2025 On the Genetic Frontiers podcast, historian (and CGS Advisory Board member) Alexandra Minna Stern identifies alarming parallels between the early 20th-century eugenics movement and the far right’s embrace of eugenics, pronatalism, and techno-utopian ideas today.   ASSISTED REPRODUCTION World’s ‘oldest baby’: what a 30-year-old embryo tells us about the future of fertility Nicky Hudson, The Conversation | 08.12.2025 The birth of the “world’s oldest baby” from a 30-year-old frozen embryo shows how reproductive technologies are changing societal assumptions about identity, genetics, family, and time – and the need for regulations to help manage these significant shifts. UK Parliamentary office calls for submissions on surrogacy Harry Hunter, PET BioNews | 08.11.2025 The UK Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology announced plans to publish a POSTnote – a briefing document for members of Parliament – based in part on stakeholder submissions on surrogacy law in the UK and internationally. It might put surrogacy reform back on the legislative agenda after earlier attempts appeared to stall. The Mystery of the L.A. Mansion Filled With Surrogate Children Katherine Long, Ben Foldy, and Sara Randazzo, The Wall Street Journal | 08.05.2025 A Chinese couple in Los Angeles is under investigation after they were found to have more than 20 children – all born through surrogacy over the course of a few years. In addition to examining the couple’s motivations, police are investigating allegations of child abuse and potential links to clients in China.   US FEDERAL POLICY Editorial: Cancelling mRNA studies is the highest irresponsibility Nature | 08.15.2025 With the federal government’s recently announced decision to terminate grants funding mRNA vaccine research, the implications of RFK Jr.’s dangerous and unfounded vaccine skepticism have become global and long-term. A little-known approach to infertility is complicating the White House's IVF push Aria Bendix, NBC News | 08.08.2025 With Trump’s support for IVF fizzling, conservative anti-abortion groups and MAHA fans hope he’ll fund “restorative reproductive medicine” instead. The approach purports to use scientifically based techniques to treat underlying causes of infertility, but it’s often attached to anti-abortion, anti-IVF sentiments. Stem Cells, the NFL, and RFK Jr. -- What Doctors Need to Know Gregory Laub and Hannah Glaser, MedPage Today | 08.07.2025 Professor of health policy and bioethicist Leigh Turner explains how professional athletes’ use and promotion of experimental stem cell treatments lend credibility to unproven, often risky procedures – a concerning trend in a political climate encouraging deregulation. White House has no plan to mandate IVF care, despite campaign pledge Riley Beggin and Jeff Stein, The Washington Post | 08.03.2025 Despite Trump’s campaign pledge and executive order promising to expand IVF access, recent reporting suggests that the White House will not make health insurers provide coverage for IVF. The administration is considering other strategies to boost access, but internal disagreements about IVF and federal family policy are far from resolved. FDA’s New Drug Approval AI Is Generating Fake Studies: Report Matt Novak, Gizmodo | 07.23.2025 RFK Jr. is pushing Health and Human Services agencies to use AI, but the perils of this approach are becoming clear. The FDA’s AI tool “Elsa” is making up nonexistent studies and misrepresenting research, according to FDA employees.   SURROGACY 360   40 Years of the Surrogacy Arrangements Act: What Next for Surrogacy? Megan Freeman, PET BioNews | 07.28.2025 An online event held by Progress Educational Trust brought together six speakers, including a surrogate, an intended parent, and surrogacy researchers and lawyers, to discuss changes in surrogacy in the UK since the Surrogacy Arrangements Act came into effect 40 years ago.   VARIOUS GMWatch publishes historic recordings of scientist Arpad Pusztai GMWatch | 08.08.2025 GMWatch has published a series of interviews conducted in March 2002 with the late scientist Dr. Arpad Pusztai. He describes the results of – and the political fallout from – his landmark 1999 study that found GM insecticidal potatoes had toxic effects on rats. This company claimed to ‘de-extinct’ dire wolves. Then the fighting started Ewen Callaway, Nature | 08.04.2025 Researchers and conservationists have made their skepticism about – or outright rejection of – Colossal Biosciences’ de-extinction claims clear. The company’s combative responses to critiques undermine their repeated reassurances of respect for scientific research and scrutiny.   If you’ve read this far, you clearly care about the fight to reclaim human biotechnologies for the common good. Thank you!  Will you support CGS by making a donation today? DONATE       SUBSCRIBE | WEBSITE | ABOUT US | CONTACT       DONATE The Center For Genetics and Society | 2900 Lakeshore Avenue | Oakland, CA 94610 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice