I have also written a short review of some of the issues involved in chasing down news on the web and elsewhere.
Newsletters
Techno-Eugenics Email Newsletter
Highly recommended free summary of developments, from a perspective opposing human germline engineering and cloning and supporting accountable social control of other genetic and reproductive technologies, approximately once a month; California-based but includes news from all over. To subscribe email teel@adax.com.
BioNews
Free weekly news digest with some commentary, based in England; published by the Progress Educational Trust, which exists to promote genetic technologies. Level-headed and willing to mention criticism, though liable to criticize the critics. To subscribe go to their website.
BioDemocracy News
Off-topic since it's about food (strongly anti-GE), but worth seeing; published about every six weeks by the Organic Consumers Association.
News Reviews
Yahoo! News Full Coverage-Biotechnology and Genetics
Most of the major portals have some kind of subject-based group system but Yahoo!'s are my favorite by far. They include not just news but editorial opinion and magazine articles, and keep them available – last I checked there were 12 pages of news stories in this section (50 per page), going back 18 months, and the articles and opinion pieces are well selected. No, I don't own stock and I'm not even a registered user.
Yahoo! also has similar sections on Cloning, Gene Therapy, Stem Cell Research, and Genetically Modified Food, among others, and they are fairly well cross-linked.
If you seriously want to search through news over the last few years, and you are rich enough or have access through a subscribing company (some, but not all, university libraries provide it), you cannot beat Lexis-Nexis, which has a searchable database covering thousands of periodicals, including major newspapers from around the world. More details are in the review, which also considers alternatives such as EBSCO.
Government Sites
National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI)
I have to admit I don't go there much ...
Human Genetics Commission (HGC)
The British equivalent
The Wellcome Trust
Strictly speaking not official, but it spends about a billion dollars a year and is essential to the British research industry.
Those Concerned About
Human Genetic Engineering
The Campaign Against Human Genetic Engineering
A British group whose name says it all
The Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG)
Long-standing, distinguished organization based in Cambridge, MA; publishes a bi-monthly print magazine called Genewatch, not to be confused with the UK GeneWatch (see below)
The Foundation on Economic Trends
Jeremy Rifkin’s group; enough said, I hope – if not, read his books, such as The Biotech Century.
The International Center for Technology Assessment
Andrew Kimbell's group, presently focusing on GE Foods, but the author of The Human Body Shop remains close to this issue.
The Turning Point Project
A coalition headed by the likes of Andy Kimbrell and Jerry Mander, producing educational advertisements on a wide variety of generally related subjects
GeneWatch UK
Not connected with CRG, and mostly focused on crops on which it provides excellent data
The Corner House
In-depth essays from an activist point of view, UK-based
Bioengineering Action Network
Considers Earth First! a bit soft; useful message-essay board
LIFE
UK anti-abortion group with strong views on cloning
Genetic Engineering and Its Dangers
Dr Ron Epstein, a Buddhist philosophy lecturer at San Francisco State has written, collected or linked to many interesting articles.
Campaign for Responsible Transplantation
Against xenotransplantation
Those in Favor of
Human Genetic Engineering
UCLA Program on Medicine, Technology and Society
Gregory Stock’s group, home of the 1998 Symposium on Engineering the Human Germline
Embracing Change with All Four Arms
A Post-Humanist Defense of Genetic Engineering
a long, intelligent essay in which Dr James Hughes explicitly disavows the anarcho-libertarian extremists in favor of social democracy but tends to assume what he is trying to prove – he criticises "Bio-Luddites" for their "fundamentalist convictions" but never really addresses his own, contrary, fundamental assumptions.
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Home of a Report widely described as critical of germline engineering but in fact supportive of it, if regulated; it appears to be an attempt to pre-empt criticism.
Nature Genome Information Centre
Most of the Nature site is for subscribers only, but this section is free and includes the magazine’s stories on genome isses.
Human Cloning Foundation
Features Mark Eibert, a California lawyer who is threatening to sue to overturn the California ban on cloning as unconstitutional
Reason Magazine
Generally unreasonable
Extropy Institute
They boast of what ought to shame them; extreme libertariarians of the "I wanna so I gotta right" school, who may seem intelligent till you notice their opposition to "forcible taxation" and the FDA and ...
Bioethics
Bioethics.Net
A substantial and award-winning site, produced by the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania under the direction of the redoubtable Glenn McGee, and integrated with the web as a whole to seem much larger than it is, especially for news; includes a lot more than Human Genetic Engineering
Genetics & Ethics
University of British Columbia; includes comprehensive lists of people and places and links to many articles
Eubios Ethics Institute
Japan-based, anti–human cloning, pro–GM food with regulation and labeling
Mainstream Media
The New York Times
requires free registration and charges for the archives, as many do
The Washington Post
includes Special Reports on cloning and ethical issues, including germline engineering; otherwise charges for archives
Los Angeles Times
charges for archives
San Francisco Chronicle
does NOT charge for archives, which go back to 1995
Chicago Tribune
charges for archives
Guardian Unlimited
UK, generally liberal; special report on the ethics of genetics
Electronic Telegraph
UK, conservative paper with excellent website
The Independent
UK, liberal paper with lousy website
The Times [London]
UK, conservative, has lost its cachet since being Murdochized though it still has the occasional good writer
BBC
huge site, needs fast access, well worth searching
Australian Broadcasting Corporation Genome Site
web feature with good links, not to be confused with the US network
Wired Med-Tech Center
Wired Magazine got a lot of deserved publicity for Bill Joy's article Why the future doesn't need us, and they also have a large archive of often interesting pieces on medical technology.
Search Engines
NewsTrawler
lets you search many papers simultaneously
Moreover
Possibly worth checking daily; I haven't been using it but it gathers news from over 1500 sources by subject.
News Index
keyword searches only
Search Engine Watch
with links to them all; search about searches!
Miscellaneous
Genesweep 2000-2003
The sweepstakes on the number of human genes
The Center for the Study of Technology and Society
I'm not sure what this is, but it contains a lot of links to news articles.
Americans for Cloning Elvis
The best argument yet for human cloning; unfortunately the petition has been suspended because too many people wanted to sign.
The Second Coming Project
Some may say this one trumps Elvis ...
