Center for Genetics and Society
The Center for Genetics and Society (CGS) is a nonprofit information and public affairs organization, based in Berkeley, California, United States. It encourages responsible use and promotes the regulation of new human genetic and reproductive technologies, to confine them to what it considers responsible uses. CGS provides analysis and educational materials in addition to organizing conferences, workshops, and briefings. It is particularly critical of proposals for full-term human cloning and germline genetic modification — uses of technology that it considers socially irresponsible.
CGS is a pro-choice organization, and positions itself as politically progressive, although its positions on some issues are similar to those of traditionally conservative groups. Its key areas of concern include: stem cell research, preimplantation genetic diagnosis, race-based medicines, egg retrieval, designer babies, human cloning, sex selection, and genetic modification of humans.
The executive director of CGS is Richard Hayes.
[edit] History
CGS was founded to advocate for social oversight and control of the new human biotechnologies. It grew out of a series of conversations and collaborations with key leaders in science, medicine, women's health, environmental justice, and human rights. This initial phase, conducted as a project of the Public Media Center in San Francisco, involved raising awareness of leaders in science, medicine, and civil society of these technologies’ potential impact, and the case for regulating them.
CGS formally began operations in October 2001. A primary focus has been to alert civil society constituencies to the challenges posed by the new human genetic technologies and assist them in building their capacity to engage in the discussions and debates about appropriate regulation. CGS has also lobbied governments during the process of policy formulation. It was involved in the early stages of the United Nations effort to propose an international treaty prohibiting human reproductive cloning. It has been particularly active in the stem cell research debate in California, where it has played a lead role in holding the state’s new $3 billion stem cell research program accountable to what it sees as the public interest.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Center for Genetics and Society
- Biopolitical Times, the blog of the Center
