The latest from the Center for Genetics and Society DONATE May 26, 2022 Terrorist Cites Genetic Research to Promote White Supremacy Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 05.26.2022 The Buffalo shooter's manifesto cites behavioral genetics research to promote his white supremacist ideology. Some scientists are grappling with the implications; others appear reluctant to do so. CGS 2020–2021 Report on Activities In the midst of navigating a global pandemic, CGS deepened our intersectional analysis of human genetics and assisted reproduction, learning from domestic and global racial justice uprisings. We gained traction in challenging resurgent eugenic beliefs and policies. Through it all, the CGS team worked to ensure a just, equitable, and sustainable future where human genetic and reproductive technologies benefit the common good. It’s Too Late to Protect Your Genetic Privacy. The Math Explaining Why. Josh Zumbrun, The Wall Street Journal | 05.20.2022 “Right now, forensic genealogy is very labor intensive and new, and being used for very serious crimes and cold cases,” said CGS’ Katie Hasson. “The likelihood it will be confined to that, without actual enforceable restrictions and regulations, is slim.” From small beginnings: to build an anti-eugenic future Benedict Ipgrave, Miroslava Chavez-Garcia, Marcy Darnovsky, Subhadra Das, Charlene Galarneau, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Nora Ellen Groce, Tony Platt, Milton Reynolds, Marius Turda, and Robert A. Wilson, The Lancet | 05.21.2022 The From Small Beginnings project will engage the public, civil society, scholars, and scientists with the lessons of eugenic history, and encourage collective imagining of an anti-eugenic future. GENOME EDITING | ASSISTED REPRODUCTION EUGENICS | GENOMICS | SURROGACY360 | VARIOUS GENOME EDITING Francis Collins Urges Gene Therapy Community to Scale Efforts to Tackle Rare Diseases Kevin Davies, Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News | 05.18.2022 At the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy annual conference, President Biden’s acting scientific advisor reflected on recent gene therapy developments and pointed to the need for new, scalable approaches to developing in vivo gene therapies. Base editing marches on the clinic Michael Eisenstein, Nature | 05.09.2022 Two companies are leading efforts to bring base editing therapies to the clinic. Beam Therapeutics’ trial will use base editing to restore expression of fetal globin in bone marrow stem cells, while Verve Therapeutics is preparing an in vivo base editing trial to treat heart attack patients with abnormally high cholesterol levels. ‘Medical tourists’ are travelling the world in search of the elixir of life Peter Ward, The Guardian | 05.05.2022 Stem cell therapies are not the only anti-ageing offerings luring people abroad for treatment. The nascent field of gene therapies is in a similar position, where promising research has yet to result in accessible interventions. ASSISTED REPRODUCTION UK fertility watchdog could recommend scrapping donor anonymity law Hannah Devlin, The Guardian | 05.20.2022 The rapid rise of consumer genetic testing websites could soon make it impossible to guarantee donor anonymity – and the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority is considering bringing the law in line with this new reality. How the End of Roe Would Change Prenatal Care Sarah Zhang, The Atlantic | 05.20.2022 Genetic testing is now a routine part of pregnancy. Abortion restrictions are already shifting how doctors talk about the results. LGBTQ Couples’ IVF Hopes Hinge on New Infertility Definition Shira Stein, Bloomberg Law | 05.17.2022 The Biden Administration could update the Affordable Care Act to address the definition of infertility often used by insurance plans to determine eligibility for IVF—a definition that is impossible for some LGBTQ individuals to meet. Overturn of Roe could make IVF more complicated, costly Ariana Eunjung Cha and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, The Washington Post | 05.11.2022 The potential Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade is expected to open the door to state laws that give human embryos legal rights and protections, which might limit choices would-be parents currently have about whether to use, store, or discard genetic material that is part of the in vitro fertilization process. Colorado will ensure people conceived through egg or sperm donation can find their donors in the future Bente Birkeland, CPR News | 05.10.2022 Starting in 2025, Colorado will no longer allow anonymous sperm and egg donations, under a bill that sponsors say is the first of its kind in the nation. The bill also requires egg and sperm banks and fertility clinics to keep records ensuring no single donor is used for more than 25 families in and out of state. ‘Our Father’ TV Review: Sins of the Doctor John Anderson, The Wall Street Journal | 05.10.2022 Only briefly acknowledging fertility doctor Donald Cline’s ties to an extremist Christian group with a racist agenda, the documentary leaves the possible eugenic and religious motivations of fertility fraud unexamined. EUGENICS ‘Why Biology Is Not Destiny’: An Exchange Kathryn Paige Harden, Nick Patterson, Victor I. Reus, and Henry D. Schlinger Jr., reply by M.W. Feldman and Jessica Riskin, The New York Review of Books | 05.25.2022 “Overall, Harden’s letter confirms what we said in our review: while disavowing essentialist, racist, and eugenic notions she affirms a new version of the old illogic that has long supported them.” Buffalo shooting ignites a debate over the role of genetics researchers in white supremacist ideology Megan Molteni, STAT | 05.23.2022 When sociogenomics researchers oversell genetics’ influence on social outcomes, they echo a long tradition of hereditarian social science with foundations in the American eugenics movement. The Buffalo shooter’s manifesto, which misappropriated genetics research, shows how these exaggerations can have dire consequences. The “Great Replacement” Theory Is the American Way Marjua Estevez, Raquel Reichard, Refinery29 | 05.19.2022 False claims that white people in the U.S. are intentionally being replaced are not new motivators for violence targeting Black, Latinx, Asian, and Indigenous populations, as evidenced by the popularity of the early 20th century eugenics movement and its policies to control reproduction and rewire the country’s racial composition. The “Great Replacement Theory” Was Never “Fringe” Tanvi Misra, Harper’s Bazaar | 05.18.2022 The racist ideology that white Americans are being replaced by immigrants—and the deadly violence that idea has led to—was promoted by powerful bureaucrats, senators, presidents, and journalists, including leaders of the early 20th century eugenics movement. GENOMICS What Genetics Can—and Cannot—Reveal about an Individual’s COVID Risk Joanna Thompson, Scientific American | 05.18.2022 Genome-wide association studies are becoming an increasingly common avenue to assess COVID risk, but experts warn that genomic analysis may be difficult to disentangle from social risk factors and could lead to increased discrimination in health systems. Targeting the Uneven Burden of Kidney Disease on Black Americans Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 05.17.2022 New treatments aim for a gene variant causing the illness in people of sub-Saharan African descent. But a focus on variants may let policymakers ignore the social and economic disparities underlying the disease. What a Gene and Its Risks Could Mean for Kidney Transplants Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 05.17.2022 Kidneys from Black donors are automatically downgraded in transplant assessments. Some are asking if genetic screening rather than race can be used to assess the risk of failure. Full-genome screening for newborn babies is now on the cards The Economist | 05.13.2022 To diagnose and treat genetic diseases, doctors in many places want to sequence and screen babies’ entire genomes at birth. But these efforts raise questions of privacy. SURROGACY360 Wartime labour: How Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has exposed the reality of the surrogacy industry Anna Feigenbaum, The Globe and Mail | 05.20.2022 The war in Ukraine not only illuminates the complexities inherent in international surrogacy, but also requires us to confront broader issues: how to prevent exploitation of women while simultaneously ensuring women have bodily autonomy, and how to think about parenthood, genetic connection, and race and reproduction. VARIOUS Salary, Integrity and Selection of a New Chair for California’s $12 Billion Cell and Gene Therapy Enterprise David Jensen, The California Stem Cell Report | 05.20.2022 The directors of the $12 billion California stem cell agency are looking for a new chair. According to a survey of the 35 board members, the new chair should be both decisive and collaborative, passionate and inclusive, a pillar of integrity – and have a talent for herding cats. Playing God with Pork Jonathan Grinstein, Neo.Life | 05.19.2022 Recent developments in xenotransplantation raise a host of ethical questions, including cost, patient autonomy and privacy, and animal welfare. A quick guide to the most important AI law you’ve never heard of Melissa Heikkilä, MIT Technology Review | 05.13.2022 The European Union is planning new legislation, the AI Act, aimed at curbing the worst harms associated with artificial intelligence. If the EU succeeds, it could set a new global standard for AI oversight. 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 | WHO WE ARE | CONTACT DONATE The Center for Genetics and Society | 2900 Lakeshore Ave., Oakland, CA 94610 Unsubscribe [email protected] Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by [email protected] powered by Try email marketing for free today!