Bioethics Research at The Hastings Center

THE HASTINGS CENTER RECEIVES $2.1 MILLION GRANT FROM THE FORD FOUNDATION

Grant will support outreach to policy makers, journalists, and opinion leaders and research in ethics and public health policy

The Hastings Center has been awarded a $2.1 million grant by the Ford Foundation in support of Bioethics and the Public Interest, a three-year initiative designed to promote thoughtful public conversations about ethical issues in health care and the life sciences. The grant will enable the Center, a world-renowned research and education institution, to expand its capacity to help policy makers, journalists, and opinion leaders better understand the ethical dimensions of end-of-life care, public health priorities, and new medical technologies, among other bioethics issues.

Under this initiative, The Hastings Center will broaden its mission as an independent, nonpartisan organization from its traditional focus on scholarly research to include activities aimed at informing public policy and enhancing public understanding. The Center will:

Draw on its 38 years of research and its world-wide network of experts to bring balance and perspective on crucial issues in bioethics to policy makers, journalists, and opinion leaders.

Alert these audiences to emerging issues that will affect all of us, such as technological developments that could transform birth, death, and the nature of human life; new concepts in health and disease; and questions of justice, equity, and fairness in our health system.

Create new print and electronic publications, web-based services, and events in Washington, D. C. and elsewhere.

The first step in the initiative is the creation of a communications department that will collaborate with the Center’s researchers, editors, and Fellows on strategic communications with policy makers, journalists, and opinion leaders. The Ford Foundation’s grant allows the Center to recruit a permanent, senior-level director of public affairs/communications, as well as a research associate to track developments in public health law and policy, develop and direct new scholarly projects, and participate in outreach to new audiences. The Center will also establish a work space in Washington, D.C.

The Ford Foundation grant is the cornerstone of a planned campaign to sustain the public interest initiative and support other activities of The Hastings Center.

Please visit this page regularly for updates on Bioethics and the Public Interest. For more information about this initiative, contact Nancy Berlinger, berlingern@thehastingscenter.org

Last Updated: 29 October 2007