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Eugenics, from Victorian to Postmodern
Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 09.24.2025
Genomics companies selling polygenic prediction of children’s futures would almost certainly disavow eugenic commitments to “race betterment” and racial hierarchies. But by pitching IVF, genetic testing, and embryo selection as good investments for families and the nation, they carry forward early eugenicists’ assertions that “better babies” are a civic responsibility.
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Welcome, Maimouna!
CGS is excited to welcome Maimouna Toliver as our new Project and Administrative Coordinator for the Confronting Eugenics initiative. Maimouna is a learning, culture, and organizational development leader with over 15 years of experience promoting equity and belonging in global mission-driven organizations, where her work has taken her to East and West Africa. She holds master's degrees in public health and international affairs and development. Born in Niger and raised in West Africa, she now lives in Atlanta, GA.
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Reproductive Justice Futurisms Think Tank: Videos now Available
Videos from the March 2025 Reproductive Justice Futurisms Think Tank convening are now available. Organized by Loretta Ross and Jallicia Jolly, the gathering at Smith College addressed how reproductive justice frameworks can respond to new eugenic applications of reproductive and genetic technologies and explored alternative reproductive futures. Look for CGS Executive Director Katie Hasson (Plenary 3) and CGS consultant Emily Galpern (Plenary 1), plus CGS Advisory Board Members Dorothy Roberts and Lisa Ikemoto, and numerous CGS colleagues.
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Can Trump’s IVF Policies Please His Pronatalist Base?
Emma McDonald Kennedy, Biopolitical Times | 09.25.2025
It may be impossible to please all the pronatalists in the Trump base at once. Silicon Valley types embrace IVF and polygenic risk scores, while Christian conservatives reject IVF altogether in favor of “restorative reproductive medicine.” The debate’s focus on expanding IVF or dismantling access to it entirely sidelines important questions about how IVF should be regulated.
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Chimeras: The Genetic Modification of Nature
Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 09.25.2025
A new GeneWatch UK briefing for the upcoming International Union for Conservation of Nature Congress makes it clear: “Genetically modifying nature is not conservation and risks undermining the very concept of conservation in itself.” Companies promoting the practice have financial incentives to do so and make misleading claims.
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Gestript van zorgen, gêne en pijn
Marianne Lamers, NEMO Kennislink | 09.23.2025
The health, safety, and experiences of women are often left out in discussions of IVF and other reproductive technologies. This has significant implications for considerations of heritable genome editing, says CGS’ Katie Hasson.
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GENE EDITING | GENOMICS | GENE THERAPY | EUGENICS
SURROGACY 360 | ASSISTED REPRODUCTION
ANIMAL TECHNOLOGIES | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
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Who decides the future of humanity? SA’s genome editing guidelines spark global concern
Vuyile Madwantsi, Independent Online | 08.22.2025
South Africa’s National Health Research Ethics Council has removed a controversial section on heritable human genome editing from their new research ethics guidelines. The change demonstrates the importance of “pressing pause” and allowing for further public engagement, more research, and deeper conversations on gene editing.
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US border patrol collected DNA from thousands of US citizens for years, data shows
Johana Bhuiyan, The Guardian | 09.23.2025
Customs and Border Patrol agents took DNA samples from about 2,000 US citizens and shared them with the FBI for storage in a database used for criminal investigations, according to a new report from Georgetown. The report calls the practice a “flagrant abuse of power” with no legal justification.
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An ELSI for AI: Learning from genetics to govern algorithms
Alondra Nelson, Science | 09.11.2025
The history of ELSI demonstrates that systematic ethical oversight strengthens rather than constrains beneficial innovation. AI development now stands at a similar inflection point, but with higher stakes and faster timelines.
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The precarious future of consumer genetic privacy
Natalie Ram et al., Science | 09.11.2025
The 23andMe bankruptcy saga made it clear that current laws fail to adequately protect consumers from the sale and misuse of their genetic data. Lawmakers’ proposals for reform do not do enough to strengthen genetic privacy.
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These Patients Got the Cure. Then It Went Away.
Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 09.22.2025
Drug companies often discard gene therapies for rare diseases even after successful clinical trials because of the high costs of developing treatments and getting regulatory approval. Some researchers and companies want the FDA to adopt a more flexible approach that involves conditional approval for rare-disease gene therapies.
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Opinion: Gene Therapy Should Not Be a Luxury
Dennis Sponer, BioSpace | 09.03.2025
New gene therapies clash with old models of insurance and reimbursement—and patients are paying the price. The US healthcare financial infrastructure can catch up to new gene therapies by treating (and funding) them as essential, lifesaving treatments, not luxuries.
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With Sobs and Doubts, Greenlandic Women Receive Apology for Forced Contraception
Jeffrey Gettleman and Maya Tekeli, The New York Times | 09.24.2025
This week, the Danish PM apologized in person to survivors of Denmark’s decades-long campaign to implant contraception devices in Indigenous Greenlandic women and girls without their knowledge or consent. Survivors criticized the government for taking decades to apologize and questioned its sincerity, given Trump’s recent interest in annexing Greenland.
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The group behind Project 2025 wants a ‘Manhattan Project’ for more babies
Jacob Bogage, The Washington Post | 09.03.2025
The Heritage Foundation is urging Trump to use executive orders to institute pronatalist policies that encourage married heterosexual couples to have more children. Unlike Silicon Valley pronatalists, the group rejects “extraordinary technical solutions,” including egg freezing subsidies, IVF, surrogacy, and genetic screening, as leading to a world of “custom lab-created babies on demand.”
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What protections are in place during surrogacy?
Robin Young, WBUR | 09.17.2025
A recent viral story of an intended parent’s attempts to punish a surrogate who had a stillbirth demonstrates how the industry and its lack of regulations leave surrogates vulnerable when complications arise.
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IVF Disrupted: The Kindbody Story
Jackie Davalos, Bloomberg | 09.15.2025
The fertility company Kindbody’s tech startup approach and aggressive growth model led to millions in venture capital and private equity funding, but it came at the cost of good patient care. A new investigative series digs into the unregulated fertility industry and shows what went wrong in Kindbody clinics.
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Neurodivergent gamete donors should not be automatically excluded
Dorian Accoe, BioNews | 09.15.2025
By excluding potential gamete donors who are neurodivergent or have a family history of neurodivergence, fertility clinics and gamete banks reinforce societal assumptions that neurodivergence is a deficiency rather than a difference.
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NICE publishes draft update to Fertility Guideline
Georgia Brice, BioNews | 09.15.2025
In a proposed update to its guidelines, the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence retains its recommendation of three NHS-funded IVF cycles for those eligible under 40 and critiques unproven IVF add-ons. The draft is open for consultation until October 21.
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Scientists Perform First Pig-to-Human Lung Transplant
Roni Caryn Rabin, The New York Times | 08.25.2025
Chinese scientists transplanted a gene-edited pig lung into a brain-dead man, but the experiment did not show whether the lung could sustain life on its own. Researchers emphasize that gene edits and animal organs only intensify the challenges of already tricky lung transplants.
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AI extremists are peddling science fiction
Aaron Ginn, The Washington Post | 09.12.2025
Critiques of AI doomers (and zealots) point to a false assumption behind this binary: that human intelligence, and now AI intelligence, is single, linear and measurable.
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A.I.’s Prophet of Doom Wants to Shut It All Down
Kevin Roose, The New York Times | 09.12.2025
Eliezer Yudkowsky, a prominent Silicon Valley techno-rationalist and “AI doomer,” has been warning of the “doomsday” possibilities of AI for decades. His new book predicts the death of humanity due to AI, which he hopes can be prevented with an “effective international treaty shutting AI down.”
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