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November 30th is Giving Tuesday!
You can make a real difference by donating to the Center for Genetics and Society, the only independent US nonprofit dedicated to genetic justice. Your gift will help prevent the emergence of a new eugenics and reclaim human biotechnologies for the common good.
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CGS is seeking a skilled Communications Coordinator to help us spread the word about our work. This is a part-time (15-20 hrs/week) contract position for 10-12 months, with potential to lead to a full-time and/or permanent position. We are looking for someone who is enthusiastic about our mission, goals, and values, and savvy about using traditional and social media to reach a range of audiences. Find out more here. |
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Marcy Darnovsky, Biopolitical Times | 11.19.2021
The Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing will be held in London on March 7–9, 2022. Recent reports from the World Health Organization and others have set the stage for discussions about science and oversight. The Center for Genetics and Society's Associate Director Katie Hasson has been invited to speak.
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Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 11.18.2021
The planning committee for the third summit has been announced. It is a little larger than its predecessors, and the members are somewhat more geographically diverse, though several have been prominently involved in both previous summits. The broad agenda seems to be set already, so how much influence the new members will have is unclear.
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Emily Galpern, Biopolitical Times | 11.17.2021
The updated map provides the most comprehensive and accurate representation of US surrogacy policy available online. The Center for Genetics and Society partnered with the National Center for Lesbian Rights to offer this resource on Surrogacy360, a website that grapples with the complexities of cross-border surrogacy.
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GENOME EDITING | ASSISTED REPRODUCTION |
EUGENICS | MARKETING | VARIOUS
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Sophia Ktori, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News | 11.12.2021
A study published in Nature Communications has shown that after being edited with CRISPR, cells with pre-existing mutations in cancer-associated genes like p53 may be able to grow and divide more quickly than cells without such mutations, giving them a competitive advantage. This highlights the need to monitor patients for cancer-related mutations when they are undergoing CRISPR-Cas9-based gene therapy.
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Fyodor D. Urnov, Molecular Therapy | 11.03.2021
CRISPR/Cas can potentially treat Mendelian diseases, but developing therapies is so time-consuming and expensive that some companies have given up even on successful trials. The process could be streamlined by developing a vertically integrated platform that could be used for different indications. Doing so would require public and philanthropic funding.
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Blake Turck, The Washington Post | 11.13.2021
“At a recent baptism, the priest exclaimed that babies were life’s happiness and couldn’t be bought. In actuality, a U.S. woman undergoing IVF to have a baby spends an average of more than $12,000, plus the cost of drugs, according to various estimates, just for an attempt to create a life, with no assurance it’ll work.”
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Hayley Smith, The Los Angeles Times | 11.08.2021
DNA testing at seven weeks confirmed that a couple’s second daughter was not genetically related to them. They connected with the other family involved, who remain anonymous, and eventually exchanged babies and filed for legal custody. They are suing the fertility clinic, its medical director, and a third-party embryology center he owns.
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Ellie Houghtaling, The Guardian | 11.07.2021
“I wasn’t the patient. I was the product… The clinic was not just assessing my predisposition for genetic disorders, it was also weighing up other attributes: my blonde hair, my blue eyes and my fair skin. I had concerns this was sanitized eugenics.”
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Rachel Kraus, Mashable | 10.31.2021
Well-financed tech-oriented companies are advertising hormone tests for fertility that are not even predictive for someone who has not struggled to become pregnant. So while education and proactive testing sounds like a good idea, it is also a way to commodify worry.
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Andrew J. Mongue and Caitlin E. McDonough-Goldstein, Scientific American | 10.22.2021
The biology, sociology, and ethics of reproduction as depicted in the novel and movie deserve more discussion. The concept of eugenics is left largely unexamined, but the course of events offers an indirect rebuke by revealing the inherent flaws in eugenic practices.
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Megan Molteni, STAT | 11.08.2021
The grace period offered to clinics by the FDA was “a good idea that had a disastrous outcome,” says Leigh Turner. In 2016, there were 537 clinics; now there are 2,754. There is no robust reporting mechanism for adverse events and the clinics’ rhetoric is that the FDA doesn’t have to approve what they’re selling. When is the crackdown coming?
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Kristen V Brown, Bloomberg | 11.04.2021
The original pitch document Anne Wojcicki showed potential investors 15 years ago envisaged 23andMe becoming a new kind of health-care business, an amalgam of a Big Pharma lab, a Big Tech company, and a trusted neighborhood doctor. Some of this still sounds as far off now as it did then, but the company has rounded second base and is heading for third.
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Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Sheila Kaplan, The New York Times | 11.12.2021
Califf is a respected academic and clinical trial researcher who ran the agency during the last year of the Obama administration. But like others who were reportedly being considered for the post, he has been criticized for his ties to the drug industry. Califf has worked as a senior adviser to Verily Life Sciences and Google Health, serves on the board of a biopharmaceutical company, and has received consulting fees from other drug and biotech companies.
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Evan S. Michelson and Adam F. Falk, Issues in Science and Technology | 11.09.2021
The total impact of philanthropy on science is estimated to be as much as $20 billion per year, which will play a critical role in shaping the conduct of science over the coming decades. Getting it right will require adopting practices that further the scientific enterprise while simultaneously helping to move society toward greater collective well-being.
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