| From | Biopolitical News & Views <[email protected]> |
| Subject | Safety, Science, and the Human Egg Market |
| Date | September 13, 2019 8:11 PM |
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Links have been removed from this email. Learn more in the FAQ.
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SUBSCRIBE ( [link removed] ) | WEBSITE ( [link removed] ) | FACEBOOK ( [link removed] ) | TWITTER ( [link removed] ) | YOUTUBE ( [link removed] ) | DONATE ( [link removed] ) | CONTACT ( mailto:[email protected] )
ANNOUNCEMENTS ( #ANN ) COMMENTARY ( #COMM ) CGS IN THE NEWS ( #MEDIA ) WHAT WE'RE READING ( #READ )
California Shouldn't Expand the Market for Women's Eggs ( [link removed] )
Lisa Ikemoto and Diane Tober, San Francisco Chronicle | 09.12.2019
Medical researchers would be allowed to buy women’s eggs under a bill being considered by the Legislature this week. As pro-choice, feminist scholars, we are deeply troubled by this legislation. The arguments for it ignore the potential health repercussions for and financial exploitation of prospective donors.
[ ]
We Have a Winner!
Congratulations to Biopolitical News & Views reader Ligia Castaldi who won a copy of Biotech Juggernaut for taking our newsletter survey!
[ COMMENTARY SECTION HEADER ]
Rigorous Pathway or Runaway Train? ( [link removed] )
Katie Hasson, Biopolitical Times | 08.15.2019
August 14 marked the first meeting of the International Commission on the Clinical Use of Human Germline Genome Editing. Despite a few speakers’ attempts to pump the brakes, the Commission appears to be skipping over the question of whether to alter the genes of future generations, and doubling down on the details of how to do so.
-------------------------
Illness or Identity? A Disability Rights Scholar Comments on the Plan to Use CRISPR to Prevent Deafness ( [link removed] )
Katie Hasson, Biopolitical Times | 09.11.2019
Bioethics professor and disability rights scholar Jackie Leach Scully responds to CGS’ questions about Denis Rebrikov’s announcement that he’ll use CRISPR to edit the genomes of human embryos, targeting genes linked to inherited deafness. In addition to the ethical issues of using CRISPR to alter heritable genes, his plan begs another important question: Who decides what constitutes a “serious condition”?
[ COMMENTARY SECTION HEADER ]
Despite Failed Promises, Stem Cell Advocates Again Want Taxpayers To Pony Up Billions ( [link removed] )
Ana B. Ibarra, California Healthline | 08.15.2019
Fifteen years after California voters agreed to spend some $6 billion on stem cell research, no readily available cures have emerged. Now California’s stem cell agency is about to ask for billions more.
-------------------------
Paying Women to Donate Their Eggs for Research Is Still a Terrible Idea ( [link removed] )
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times | 08.23.2019
Without adequate research on the long-term effects of egg provision, paying women for their eggs will always be an exploitative practice. The egg donor market, Hiltzik says, is an unregulated Wild West, and it’s only going to get wilder if limits on payment to donors are eliminated.
[ COMMENTARY SECTION HEADER ]
Animals ( #1 ) | Assisted Reproductive Technologies ( #2 ) | Eugenics ( #3 ) | Genomics ( #4 )
Heritable Gene Editing ( #5 ) | Society ( #6 ) | Stem Cells ( #7 ) | Surrogacy ( #8 )
HERITABLE GENE EDITING
-------------------------
Designer Babies Are On the Way. We're Not Ready ( [link removed] )
Robert Klitzman, CNN | 08.16.2019
With racism and economic divides prevalent in our society, we must be better prepared for technological advances powerful enough to change generations of people and our species as a whole.
Scientists Attempt Controversial Experiment To Edit DNA In Human Sperm Using CRISPR ( [link removed] )
Rob Stein, NPR | 08.22.2019
Reproductive biologists at Weill Cornell Medicine are looking for ways to prevent heritable diseases by editing sperm. In the estimation of many scientists, this raises the same troubling questions as editing the DNA of embryos.
ANIMALS
-------------------------
The Biotech-Industrial Complex Gets Ready to Define What is Human ( [link removed] )
Stuart Newman, CounterPunch | 08.16.2019
Human-animal hybrids are no longer the stuff of monster movies. A successful fetal human-monkey chimera was created in a California lab this summer, and researchers in Japan have been given the go-ahead to bring human-pig chimeras to full term.
Brazil's Plans for Gene-Edited Cows Got Scrapped—Here's Why ( [link removed] )
Megan Molteni, WIRED | 08.26.2019
Plans to produce a herd of hornless cattle were abandoned when FDA scientists discovered that bacterial DNA — including a gene conferring antibiotic resistance — had unintentionally been inserted into the genome of a gene-edited stud bull.
His Cat’s Death Left Him Heartbroken. So He Cloned It. ( [link removed] )
Sui-Lee Wee, The New York Times | 09.04.2019
Garlic the cat’s genes live on after a Beijing-based pet-cloning company achieved its first success with a cat — a development that marks China’s entry into a potentially lucrative and unregulated market for cloning pets.
ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
-------------------------
"I'm deeply concerned about how the United States treats egg donors" ( [link removed] )
Alison Motluk, HeyReprotech! | 08.27.2019
We Are Egg Donors was formed as a way for donors to connect and support one another. Despite its success, one of the group’s founders decided to resign after becoming increasingly uneasy about the practice.
Their Mothers Chose Donor Sperm. The Doctors Used Their Own. ( [link removed] )
Jacqueline Mroz, The New York Times | 08.21.2019
Dr. Kim McMorries is the fertility doctor behind the latest in a string of scandals involving practitioners using their own sperm to impregnate women who seek treatment at their clinics.
EUGENICS
-------------------------
The Dignity of Disabled Lives ( [link removed] )
Andrew Solomon, The New York Times | 09.02.2019
According to scientists behind the eugenics movement, the key to breeding a pure, advantaged race was getting rid of "misfits." This view was reflected in American campaigns to sterilize people with disabilities. Today, despite gains in social attitudes and beliefs, the disability community must continue to claim visibility and share their stories so these gains can strengthen and grow.
GENOMICS
-------------------------
Overvaluing Individual Consent Ignores Risks to Tribal Participants ( [link removed] )
Krystal S. Tsosie, Joseph M. Yracheta, Donna Dickenson, Nature Reviews Genetics | 08.16.2019
Genomic studies consistently rely on individual-based consent approaches for tribal members residing outside of their communities. This practice can violate Indigenous communitarian ethics and bypass tribal sovereignty. (Subscription required.)
Top U.S. Medical Centers Roll Out DNA Sequencing Clinics for Healthy (and Often Wealthy) Clients ( [link removed] )
Rebecca Robbins, STAT | 08.16.2019
It is not yet known whether apparently healthy people benefit from gene sequencing. The fact that these services are increasingly available to patients who can pay worries some in the medical community.
How Genetics Could Soon Become the New Frontier for Advantage in Sport ( [link removed] )
Catherine Taylor, ABC News Australia | 08.24.2019
Is there such a thing as an “Olympic” gene? Some researchers think it may be a key factor in nurturing the next generation of elite athletes.
The Trump Administration Wants to Start DNA Testing Undocumented Immigrants in Government Custody ( [link removed] )
Hamed Aleaziz, BuzzFeed News | 08.29.2019
A new draft regulation would allow Customs and Border Protection officials to collect DNA samples in a purported effort to prevent crime and crack down on immigration fraud.
Biohackers are Pirating a Cheap Version of a Million-dollar Gene Therapy ( [link removed] )
Alex Pearlman, MIT Technology Review | 08.30.2019
A group of independent and amateur biologists claim to have engineered a low-cost version of Glybera, the world’s most expensive drug at $1 million per treatment.
SOCIETY
-------------------------
Is Genetic Medicine Making the World Less Fair? ( [link removed] )
Laura Hercher, The Nation | 08.23.2019
All indicators point to the likelihood that genetic medicine will be a luxury accessible only to the wealthy. This reality could potentially make life worse for people born with genetic conditions.
Private Jets, Parties and Eugenics: Jeffrey Epstein's Bizarre World of Scientists ( [link removed] )
Luke Darby, The Guardian | 08.19.2019
Although Jeffrey Epstein called himself a “scientific philanthropist,” it’s now evident he harbored transhumanist and eugenic fantasies — a devastating development for many of the high-profile scientists he surrounded himself with.
Dr. Stuart Newman: “It Seems to Me That We Are Headed for A Techno-Eugenic Future” ( [link removed] )
Mohsen Abdelmoumen, American Herald Tribune | 09.05.2019
Prospective people are not any doctor’s patient, nor are they any future parent’s property to be made to order. Human modification would be uncontrolled experimentation. … Few scientists openly espouse eugenicist policies these days but many find little wrong with embryo gene engineering, notwithstanding the fallibility of the technology.
STEM CELLS
-------------------------
New Google Policy Bars Ads for Unproven Stem Cell Therapies ( [link removed] )
William Wan and Laurie McGinley, The Washington Post | 09.06.2019
After seeing a rise in the number of bad actors using their platform, Google will now no longer accept ads for “unproven or experimental medical techniques,” including most stem cell therapy, cellular therapy, and gene therapy.
SURROGACY
-------------------------
Australian Parents Warn Reality of Ukrainian Surrogacy Doesn't Always Match the Dream ( [link removed] )
Traci Bowden, ABC News Australia | 08.21.2019
After pinning their hopes for a family on surrogacy, two couples reveal how the experience left them with unmet expectations, unexpected bills, and unanswered questions about the care received by the women who acted as surrogates.
-------------------------
SUBSCRIBE ( [link removed] ) | WEBSITE ( [link removed] ) | ABOUT US ( [link removed] ) | WHO WE ARE ( [link removed] ) | CONTACT ( mailto:[email protected] )
( [link removed] )
-------------------------
This e-mail was sent to [email protected] by [email protected].
Center for Genetics & Society, 1122 University Ave., Suite 100, Berkeley, California 94702
If you no longer wish to receive commercial e-mail messages from [email protected], please select the following link: Remove ( [link removed] ).
SUBSCRIBE ( [link removed] ) | WEBSITE ( [link removed] ) | FACEBOOK ( [link removed] ) | TWITTER ( [link removed] ) | YOUTUBE ( [link removed] ) | DONATE ( [link removed] ) | CONTACT ( mailto:[email protected] )
ANNOUNCEMENTS ( #ANN ) COMMENTARY ( #COMM ) CGS IN THE NEWS ( #MEDIA ) WHAT WE'RE READING ( #READ )
California Shouldn't Expand the Market for Women's Eggs ( [link removed] )
Lisa Ikemoto and Diane Tober, San Francisco Chronicle | 09.12.2019
Medical researchers would be allowed to buy women’s eggs under a bill being considered by the Legislature this week. As pro-choice, feminist scholars, we are deeply troubled by this legislation. The arguments for it ignore the potential health repercussions for and financial exploitation of prospective donors.
[ ]
We Have a Winner!
Congratulations to Biopolitical News & Views reader Ligia Castaldi who won a copy of Biotech Juggernaut for taking our newsletter survey!
[ COMMENTARY SECTION HEADER ]
Rigorous Pathway or Runaway Train? ( [link removed] )
Katie Hasson, Biopolitical Times | 08.15.2019
August 14 marked the first meeting of the International Commission on the Clinical Use of Human Germline Genome Editing. Despite a few speakers’ attempts to pump the brakes, the Commission appears to be skipping over the question of whether to alter the genes of future generations, and doubling down on the details of how to do so.
-------------------------
Illness or Identity? A Disability Rights Scholar Comments on the Plan to Use CRISPR to Prevent Deafness ( [link removed] )
Katie Hasson, Biopolitical Times | 09.11.2019
Bioethics professor and disability rights scholar Jackie Leach Scully responds to CGS’ questions about Denis Rebrikov’s announcement that he’ll use CRISPR to edit the genomes of human embryos, targeting genes linked to inherited deafness. In addition to the ethical issues of using CRISPR to alter heritable genes, his plan begs another important question: Who decides what constitutes a “serious condition”?
[ COMMENTARY SECTION HEADER ]
Despite Failed Promises, Stem Cell Advocates Again Want Taxpayers To Pony Up Billions ( [link removed] )
Ana B. Ibarra, California Healthline | 08.15.2019
Fifteen years after California voters agreed to spend some $6 billion on stem cell research, no readily available cures have emerged. Now California’s stem cell agency is about to ask for billions more.
-------------------------
Paying Women to Donate Their Eggs for Research Is Still a Terrible Idea ( [link removed] )
Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times | 08.23.2019
Without adequate research on the long-term effects of egg provision, paying women for their eggs will always be an exploitative practice. The egg donor market, Hiltzik says, is an unregulated Wild West, and it’s only going to get wilder if limits on payment to donors are eliminated.
[ COMMENTARY SECTION HEADER ]
Animals ( #1 ) | Assisted Reproductive Technologies ( #2 ) | Eugenics ( #3 ) | Genomics ( #4 )
Heritable Gene Editing ( #5 ) | Society ( #6 ) | Stem Cells ( #7 ) | Surrogacy ( #8 )
HERITABLE GENE EDITING
-------------------------
Designer Babies Are On the Way. We're Not Ready ( [link removed] )
Robert Klitzman, CNN | 08.16.2019
With racism and economic divides prevalent in our society, we must be better prepared for technological advances powerful enough to change generations of people and our species as a whole.
Scientists Attempt Controversial Experiment To Edit DNA In Human Sperm Using CRISPR ( [link removed] )
Rob Stein, NPR | 08.22.2019
Reproductive biologists at Weill Cornell Medicine are looking for ways to prevent heritable diseases by editing sperm. In the estimation of many scientists, this raises the same troubling questions as editing the DNA of embryos.
ANIMALS
-------------------------
The Biotech-Industrial Complex Gets Ready to Define What is Human ( [link removed] )
Stuart Newman, CounterPunch | 08.16.2019
Human-animal hybrids are no longer the stuff of monster movies. A successful fetal human-monkey chimera was created in a California lab this summer, and researchers in Japan have been given the go-ahead to bring human-pig chimeras to full term.
Brazil's Plans for Gene-Edited Cows Got Scrapped—Here's Why ( [link removed] )
Megan Molteni, WIRED | 08.26.2019
Plans to produce a herd of hornless cattle were abandoned when FDA scientists discovered that bacterial DNA — including a gene conferring antibiotic resistance — had unintentionally been inserted into the genome of a gene-edited stud bull.
His Cat’s Death Left Him Heartbroken. So He Cloned It. ( [link removed] )
Sui-Lee Wee, The New York Times | 09.04.2019
Garlic the cat’s genes live on after a Beijing-based pet-cloning company achieved its first success with a cat — a development that marks China’s entry into a potentially lucrative and unregulated market for cloning pets.
ASSISTED REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOLOGIES
-------------------------
"I'm deeply concerned about how the United States treats egg donors" ( [link removed] )
Alison Motluk, HeyReprotech! | 08.27.2019
We Are Egg Donors was formed as a way for donors to connect and support one another. Despite its success, one of the group’s founders decided to resign after becoming increasingly uneasy about the practice.
Their Mothers Chose Donor Sperm. The Doctors Used Their Own. ( [link removed] )
Jacqueline Mroz, The New York Times | 08.21.2019
Dr. Kim McMorries is the fertility doctor behind the latest in a string of scandals involving practitioners using their own sperm to impregnate women who seek treatment at their clinics.
EUGENICS
-------------------------
The Dignity of Disabled Lives ( [link removed] )
Andrew Solomon, The New York Times | 09.02.2019
According to scientists behind the eugenics movement, the key to breeding a pure, advantaged race was getting rid of "misfits." This view was reflected in American campaigns to sterilize people with disabilities. Today, despite gains in social attitudes and beliefs, the disability community must continue to claim visibility and share their stories so these gains can strengthen and grow.
GENOMICS
-------------------------
Overvaluing Individual Consent Ignores Risks to Tribal Participants ( [link removed] )
Krystal S. Tsosie, Joseph M. Yracheta, Donna Dickenson, Nature Reviews Genetics | 08.16.2019
Genomic studies consistently rely on individual-based consent approaches for tribal members residing outside of their communities. This practice can violate Indigenous communitarian ethics and bypass tribal sovereignty. (Subscription required.)
Top U.S. Medical Centers Roll Out DNA Sequencing Clinics for Healthy (and Often Wealthy) Clients ( [link removed] )
Rebecca Robbins, STAT | 08.16.2019
It is not yet known whether apparently healthy people benefit from gene sequencing. The fact that these services are increasingly available to patients who can pay worries some in the medical community.
How Genetics Could Soon Become the New Frontier for Advantage in Sport ( [link removed] )
Catherine Taylor, ABC News Australia | 08.24.2019
Is there such a thing as an “Olympic” gene? Some researchers think it may be a key factor in nurturing the next generation of elite athletes.
The Trump Administration Wants to Start DNA Testing Undocumented Immigrants in Government Custody ( [link removed] )
Hamed Aleaziz, BuzzFeed News | 08.29.2019
A new draft regulation would allow Customs and Border Protection officials to collect DNA samples in a purported effort to prevent crime and crack down on immigration fraud.
Biohackers are Pirating a Cheap Version of a Million-dollar Gene Therapy ( [link removed] )
Alex Pearlman, MIT Technology Review | 08.30.2019
A group of independent and amateur biologists claim to have engineered a low-cost version of Glybera, the world’s most expensive drug at $1 million per treatment.
SOCIETY
-------------------------
Is Genetic Medicine Making the World Less Fair? ( [link removed] )
Laura Hercher, The Nation | 08.23.2019
All indicators point to the likelihood that genetic medicine will be a luxury accessible only to the wealthy. This reality could potentially make life worse for people born with genetic conditions.
Private Jets, Parties and Eugenics: Jeffrey Epstein's Bizarre World of Scientists ( [link removed] )
Luke Darby, The Guardian | 08.19.2019
Although Jeffrey Epstein called himself a “scientific philanthropist,” it’s now evident he harbored transhumanist and eugenic fantasies — a devastating development for many of the high-profile scientists he surrounded himself with.
Dr. Stuart Newman: “It Seems to Me That We Are Headed for A Techno-Eugenic Future” ( [link removed] )
Mohsen Abdelmoumen, American Herald Tribune | 09.05.2019
Prospective people are not any doctor’s patient, nor are they any future parent’s property to be made to order. Human modification would be uncontrolled experimentation. … Few scientists openly espouse eugenicist policies these days but many find little wrong with embryo gene engineering, notwithstanding the fallibility of the technology.
STEM CELLS
-------------------------
New Google Policy Bars Ads for Unproven Stem Cell Therapies ( [link removed] )
William Wan and Laurie McGinley, The Washington Post | 09.06.2019
After seeing a rise in the number of bad actors using their platform, Google will now no longer accept ads for “unproven or experimental medical techniques,” including most stem cell therapy, cellular therapy, and gene therapy.
SURROGACY
-------------------------
Australian Parents Warn Reality of Ukrainian Surrogacy Doesn't Always Match the Dream ( [link removed] )
Traci Bowden, ABC News Australia | 08.21.2019
After pinning their hopes for a family on surrogacy, two couples reveal how the experience left them with unmet expectations, unexpected bills, and unanswered questions about the care received by the women who acted as surrogates.
-------------------------
SUBSCRIBE ( [link removed] ) | WEBSITE ( [link removed] ) | ABOUT US ( [link removed] ) | WHO WE ARE ( [link removed] ) | CONTACT ( mailto:[email protected] )
( [link removed] )
-------------------------
This e-mail was sent to [email protected] by [email protected].
Center for Genetics & Society, 1122 University Ave., Suite 100, Berkeley, California 94702
If you no longer wish to receive commercial e-mail messages from [email protected], please select the following link: Remove ( [link removed] ).
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