Project launched in January 2008

Principal Investigator: Mary Crowley

Funders: The Greenwall Foundation and The Lounsbery Foundation

Purpose

To provide campaigns, journalists, and policymakers with a ready reference on about three dozen issues in bioethics with high public interest.

Key Issues

FromSickoto stem cells, the public is paying increased attention to bioethical issues, both to broader concerns such as health care reform and specific topics emerging out of biotechnology. When public understanding of these issues is shaped by a polarized political climate, policymaking suffers. Clear, well informed thinking on bioethics issues is urgently needed.  To address this need, the Hastings Center used its interdisciplinary, nonpartisan expertise to develop a bioethics briefing book for campaign staffs, policymakers and journalists.

Products

From Assisted Reproduction to Stem Cells: The Hastings Center Bioethics Briefing Book for Campaigns, Journalists, and Policymakers is a 183-page volume, available online and with a limited print run. It consists of three dozen entries written by leading scholars, drawn primarily from the Center’s research staff and its Fellows. Each entry includes expert contacts and resources, such as further reading and recent news stories. The volume also has framing essays by Center president Tom Murray and Center cofounder Daniel Callahan, and by TIME magazine editor-at-large Nancy Gibbs. It includes appendices of relevant legislation.