The latest from the Center for Genetics and Society     DONATE October 24, 2022     European Convention Continues to Ban Germline Editing Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 10.17.2022 The Council of Europe treaty that explicitly bans heritable genome editing in 29 ratifying countries has been reexamined in light of new technological developments. The results couldn’t be clearer: Heritable genome editing––that is, for the purposes of procreation––is still banned.         Event: Forging New Disability Rights Narratives about Heritable Genome Editing On Monday, November 14 at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET / 6 pm CET, join us to explore how new narratives can challenge uses of genetic and reproductive technologies based on ingrained ableism, and promote futures in which disabled people flourish. This roundtable conversation will feature Silvia Yee (Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund), Larkin Taylor-Parker (Autistic Self Advocacy Network), and Teresa Blankmeyer Burke (Gallaudet University) [TBC], with Rebecca Cokley (Ford Foundation) moderating. Register here for this free online event. ASL/CART provided.       Celebrating Loretta Ross Emily Galpern, Biopolitical Times | 10.19.2022 Last week, Loretta Ross was named a 2022 MacArthur Fellow. As one of the founders of the reproductive justice movement, Ross has a long history of grassroots organizing that centers the voices and well-being of women of color. The Next Gene Editing Summit Begins to Come into Focus Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 10.07.2022 With almost no time for human rights and social justice perspectives to weigh in on human heritable genome editing, will the March 2023 gene editing summit wind up being an opportunity for advocacy in favor of adopting HGE, disguised as dialogue?   GENE THERAPY | GENOMICS | ASSISTED REPRODUCTION EUGENICS | SURROGACY360 | ANIMAL TECHNOLOGIES   GENE THERAPY Gene therapy can make a real impact on global health but we need equitable access, say experts Kevin Doxzen, World Economic Forum | 10.18.2022 The narrative that new healthcare technologies are unsuitable for low- and middle-income countries excludes a majority of the world from the benefits of modern medicine. Without concerted efforts to build gene therapy capacity, the global health divide will continue to widen. A Bold Effort to Cure HIV—Using Crispr Emily Mullin, Wired | 10.05.2022 A clinical trial will test whether a one-time infusion of an experimental CRISPR therapy can cure HIV. Gene-editing molecules target two regions in the HIV genome important for viral replication but avoid “off-target” edits to the human genome.   GENOMICS The first Indigenous female surgeon in Canada is battling for health justice McKenzie Prillaman, Nature | 10.19.2022 Through the Silent Genomes project, Nadine Caron is working to reduce healthcare inequities that exclude Indigenous people in Canada from genomic technologies and to ensure Indigenous oversight of genetic data. Can Start-Ups Significantly Lower the Cost of Gene Sequencing? Roy Furchgott, The New York Times | 10.12.2022 Companies like Ultima Genomics say they can lower the cost of gene sequencing, leading to medical breakthroughs. But similar promises in the past have fizzled and barriers remain. DNA-assisted mug shots in law enforcement are based on dubious science. So why would Edmonton police use them? Taylor Lambert, CBC News | 10.07.2022 The Edmonton Police apologized after publicizing a composite sketch and description of a sexual assault suspect that was created through DNA phenotyping. Genetic scientists have critiqued the technique itself, especially when used to depict marginalized populations. Genetic test for cancer is less accurate for Black and Asian people Grace Wade, New Scientist | 09.29.2022 A new study shows that genetic tests that are supposed to predict the efficacy of certain cancer treatments aren’t as effective for people of African or Asian ancestry, in part because genetic databases mostly contain DNA from white people of European descent. Black Medical Colleges Receive $46 Million Dollar Opportunity to Disrupt Genomic Field Tanya A. Christian, EBONY | 09.28.2022 A new initiative from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan will fund research at four historically black medical colleges in the U.S. to try to address the underrepresentation of Black people in genomics research.   ASSISTED REPRODUCTION Designer babies? Hi-tech preimplantation genetic testing may soon come to Israel Nirit Sandman Eriksson, The Times of Israel | 10.14.2022 Although not yet available in Israel, polygenic risk scoring is marketed as a way to assess the chance that an embryo will later develop specific diseases. If introduced, the technology would bring a host of ethical issues, including the potential for eugenics. Will Proposed Bills Reverse Michigan’s Hostile Surrogacy Laws? Ellen Trachman, Above the Law | 10.05.2022 Under current Michigan law, compensated surrogacy is a crime. Recently introduced legislation would, if passed, decriminalize it. It would also establish a regulated and protected path for non-compensated surrogacy. Fertility clinics' compliance with consumer law: Findings from the CMA Debbie Kitcher-Jones, BioNews | 10.03.2022 A new report from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority found that many fertility clinics offering IVF and egg freezing services made unsubstantiated claims about success rates and failed to disclose procedure risks. We need to talk about the big lies behind freezing your eggs Alison Motluk, The Globe and Mail | 09.23.2022 “Egg freezing is not medically benign––it carries risks…it’s not financially neutral––it’s pricey. But even more concerning is its psychological impact.”   EUGENICS Counter the weaponization of genetics research by extremists Jedidiah Carlson, Brenna M. Henn, Dana R. Al-Hindi, and Sohini Ramachandran, Nature | 10.19.2022 “Efforts to claim the superiority of some people on the basis of genetics have no scientific evidence. Ultimately, we as scientists need to ensure that our analyses are conducted and presented to underscore — not undermine — the biological reality of our shared humanity.” Imperialism’s long shadow: the UK universities grappling with a colonial past Philip Ball, Nature | 10.19.2022 Research institutions in the U.K. are reckoning with their historical role supporting the eugenics movement and colonization. “We’re not hiding our past, but we can choose whether to honour people’s names…and we can use this as a pivoting point to teach that history.” We, The People Did Next To Nothing John Kendall Hawkins, CounterPunch | 10.14.2022 Ken Burns’ documentary series explores U.S. government failures to intervene in the Holocaust, the indifference of many Americans to reports of atrocities, and the resonance between Nazi eugenics and U.S. policies of forced sterilization and segregation. Forced sterilization, Dobbs and a long history of regulating people’s bodies Zari Taylor, The Daily Tar Heel | 10.11.2022 North Carolina was one of many states that forcibly sterilized women, especially non-white women and women with disabilities. A 1929 law created the NC Eugenics Board and began sterilization in the state, which continued until 1973. Philadelphia issues apology for Holmesburg Prison experiments Ximena Conde, The Philadelphia Inquirer | 10.06.2022 Philadelphia apologized for experiments conducted on mostly Black men incarcerated in the city’s now-inactive Holmesburg Prison. From 1951–1974, prisoners were deliberately exposed to herpes, radioactive isotopes, and poisonous chemicals used in the Vietnam war. How Nature contributed to science’s discriminatory legacy The Editors, Nature | 09.28.2022 Nature is examining its own history of publishing articles featuring offensive and harmful research that promoted eugenics and colonization: “They contrast starkly with the journal’s current goal of fostering equity, diversity and inclusion.” How U.S. Textbooks Helped Instill White Supremacy Dana Goldstein, The New York Times | 09.26.2022 A new study of American history textbooks from the 1800s to the 1980s reveals how Northern publishers and universities were responsible for spreading an enduring ideology of white supremacy and Black inferiority, in part through the eugenics movement. Spread This Like Wildfire! Jedidiah Carlson, Science for the People | 09.26.2022 The Buffalo shooter’s manifesto demonstrated how genetic science has become grist for the mill of far-right conspiracy theories and propaganda materials. How can the scientific community better organize to counter weaponized science?   SURROGACY360     How Ukraine’s Surrogate Mothers Have Survived the War Maria Varenikova and Andrew E. Kramer, The New York Times | 10.16.2022 Despite wartime challenges, Ukrainian surrogacy agencies are resuming operations. Compensation has helped some surrogates and their families flee to safer areas, but the surrogates themselves face new dangers in an ethically complex occupation.   How a Photo of Khloé Kardashian Reignited Debate on Motherhood, Surrogacy, and Global Inequality Rohitha Naraharisetty, The Swaddle | 09.26.2022 While international surrogacy makes parenthood possible for some, it also operates within global systems of inequality that leave surrogates with little recognition or power.   ANIMAL TECHNOLOGIES Are rats with human brain cells still just rats? Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review | 10.14.2022 Is it ethical to humanize the brains of non-human animals through organoid transplantation? Julian J. Koplin argues, “we do need to start thinking about whether this could have any follow-on effect for the moral status of the research animal.” Gene-edited sheep offer hope for treatment of lethal childhood disease Robin McKie, The Guardian | 10.09.2022 Using gene-editing, researchers produced sheep with the faulty gene that causes the lethal, inherited Batten disease in children. Experiments with enzyme treatments on the sheep may eventually help develop treatment for children with the disease. The CIA Just Invested in Woolly Mammoth Resurrection Technology Daniel Boguslaw, The Intercept | 09.28.2022 The CIA’s venture capital firm has invested in several biotechnology companies with the hope of steering global biological phenomena that impact “nation-to-nation competition” while enabling the United States “to help set the ethical, as well as the technological, standards” for its use.   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 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!