The latest from the Center for Genetics and Society     DONATE December 15, 2022     Huge thanks––and a MATCHING challenge! Your generosity made this Giving Tuesday a big success. We are 43% of the way toward our goal of raising $18,500 by the end of the year. Your gift helps promote social justice in the high-stakes policy debates about human genetics. Give now, before the end of December, and your contribution will be doubled by a generous longtime donor. You can make a difference in the fight for genetic justice today!       Some of Our Favorite 2022 Biopolitical Times Posts Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 12.09.2022 Following an annual Biopolitical Times tradition, we present a choice selection of posts from the past year. Did your favorite make the list?   Hipster Eugenics: Better Babies for Billionaires Pete Shanks, Biopolitical Times | 11.30.2022 “Hipster eugenics” brutally sums up the pronatalist, techno-utopian credo combining transhumanism, longtermism and effective altruism. It’s a toxic view in which embryo selection––and potentially heritable genome editing––are transformative, socially responsible technologies.   GENE EDITING | GENOMICS | ASSISTED REPRODUCTION EUGENICS | SURROGACY360 | VARIOUS   GENE EDITING Experimental CRISPR technique has promise against aggressive leukaemia Michael Le Page, New Scientist | 12.11.2022 A 13-year-old girl whose leukemia had not responded to other treatments now has no detectable cancer cells after receiving a dose of immune cells that were genetically edited with CRISPR to attack the cancer. We Can Cure Disease by Editing a Person’s DNA. Why Aren’t We? Fyodor Urnov, The New York Times | 12.09.2022 CRISPR could help cure diseases caused by single-gene mutations for millions of people, but without effective regulation and new funding models, these treatments will remain inaccessible. Any changes to law on human gene editing should be after public consultation Peter McKnight, Vancouver Sun | 12.08.2022 Lawmakers are considering changes to Canada’s regulations on assisted reproduction, potentially including human gene editing. Changes should only be made after a process of open, public consultation. Do Verve's gene edits pass down to patients’ children? The FDA wants to know Nick Paul Taylor, Fierce Biotech | 12.05.2022 The FDA has suspended Verve Therapeutics’ application for a high cholesterol gene editing therapy until the company provides more data about whether patients could pass on the altered genes to their children. A Promising Trial Targets a Genetic Risk for Alzheimer’s Gina Kolata, The New York Times | 12.05.2022 A new gene therapy trial will test whether injecting a protective gene into the brains of patients that have a particular genetic risk for Alzheimer’s can help reduce the likelihood of developing the disease. Groundbreaking CRISPR treatment for blindness only works for subset of patients Jocelyn Kaiser, Science | 11.17.2022 A clinical trial of CRISPR to treat a rare inherited blindness disorder has been paused after the treatment made “clinically meaningful” vision improvements in only 3 of 14 patients. The Era of One-Shot, Multimillion-Dollar Genetic Cures Is Here Emily Mullin, Wired | 12.05.2022 Gene therapies for diseases like hemophilia could provide long-term relief, but developing these treatments drives their cost into the millions, making them inaccessible for most people. After three years in prison, ‘CRISPR babies’ scientist is attempting a comeback Megan Molteni, STAT | 11.29.2022 Recently released from prison after his reckless gene editing experiment, He Jiankui announced that he has established a new lab in Beijing that will develop gene therapies for rare genetic diseases. GATTACA is still pertinent 25 years later Dov Greenbaum and Mark Gerstein, Nature | 11.24.2022 The film GATTACA envisioned a dystopian future in which social inequalities were reinscribed via genetic determinism. 25 years after the film’s release, its prescient forewarnings remain relevant given the current trajectory of genomic science and technology.   GENOMICS They Trusted Their Prenatal Test. They Didn’t Know the Industry Is an Unregulated “Wild West.” Anna Clark, Adriana Gallardo, Jenny Deam and Mariam Elba, ProPublica | 12.06.2022 With no oversight to ensure their accuracy before they are marketed to providers and patients, prenatal screenings exist in a “regulatory void.” As companies choose not to report inaccuracies, patients’ confusion and anger proliferate. When the NYPD Gets Desperate Amos Barshad, The Nation | 11.28.2022 In a high-profile murder case, New York police swabbed hundreds of Black men. Then they illegally used a private DNA lab, relied on the scientifically contested practice of DNA phenotyping to implicate a suspect, and concealed their tactics. ‘Genetics ain't everything’: You can clone your dog or cat, but should you? Craig Miller, Morningstar | 11.22.2022 More companies are offering to clone pet dogs or cats. The expensive procedure is rarely successful, and the unnecessary medical intervention on vulnerable animals is ethically concerning.   ASSISTED REPRODUCTION Bristol: Single women and transgender people to get fertility treatment Adam Postans, BBC | 12.02.2022 After public consultation identified concerns about equity in access to IVF, regulators in the UK approved a new policy that will extend fertility treatment to single women and transgender people on the National Health Service in Bristol. We can now use cells from dead people to create new life. But who gets to decide? Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review | 11.25.2022 Sperm from dead people can be used to make embryos. In some cases, family members have wanted to use or even collect gametes posthumously to create children. Who gets to decide? The Realities of Race in Assisted Reproduction Melissa Harris-Perry, WNYC Studios | 11.17.2022 Discussing the experiences of Black people undergoing IVF and donating sperm, Camisha Russell explains, “assisted reproductive technologies are about making families and creating families. That, in the US, has always been so highly racialized.”   EUGENICS Why the Idea of a ‘Normal’ Body Is So Insidious Heather Radke, TIME | 11.26.2022 Eugenicists after World War II pursued the project of eradicating “insufficiently white,” disabled, and queer people by engineering a false idea of the “normal” body. This pernicious norm continues to operate in healthcare and biotechnology today. Can Super Babies Save the World? Julia Black, Insider | 11.17.2022 Pronatalist couples like Malcolm and Simone Collins are using genetic testing to select what they believe are “superior” embryos––a twisted variant on eugenic thinking.   SURROGACY360     They Were Surrogates. Now They Must Raise the Children. Hannah Beech, The New York Times | 11.26.2022 In 2018, 30 Cambodian surrogates were convicted of human trafficking, served time in prison, and gave birth while imprisoned––some chained to their beds. In exchange for suspended sentences, they are being required to raise the children themselves.   VARIOUS San Francisco bars police from using killer robots, reversing recent vote Niha Masih, The Washington Post | 12.07.2022 The San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved police use of remote-controlled robots to kill in a limited number of situations. Public outcry over the militarization of police ensued, and the Board quickly reversed their decision, banning the practice. Will pigs solve the organ crisis? The future of animal-to-human transplants Sara Reardon, Nature | 11.23.2022 This year, surgeons transplanted the first pig organs into human recipients. Now, researchers are keen to launch more human trials. But the first transplant and the patient’s subsequent death exposed the risks in these experiments. Inside the billion-dollar meeting for the mega-rich who want to live forever Jessica Hamzelou, MIT Technology Review | 11.16.2022 The ultra-wealthy want life-extending technologies. Their desires––and investment––have drawn biotech startups and entrepreneurs to the industry. Supplements and new technologies are advertised––without scientific evidence––as the key to attaining the new luxury good: longevity.   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!