Bioethics Leadership
Guidance
Public Discourse

Bioethics Leadership: How does Hastings foster leadership in the field?

We foster bioethics leadership throughout the career trajectory by nurturing early-career scholars and rewarding high achievement by accomplished individuals.

• Hastings Center Fellows
  Hastings Center Fellows are elected individuals whose work has informed scholarship and public understanding of complex ethical issues in health, health care, life sciences research, and the environment.
• Hastings Pathway Programs
  The Hastings Center has pathway programs for early-career researchers and students who are interested in bioethics issues and careers.
  • Sadler Scholars. The Hastings Center Sadler Scholars are a select group of doctoral students and early-career scholars interested in bioethics research careers. 
  • SNF Global Bioethics Mentorship Program. The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Global Bioethics Mentorship Program is a one-year remote opportunity for project-focused mentorship for early-career bioethics researchers in low and middle income countries and territories (LMICs).
  • Summer Bioethics Program. The Hastings Center Summer Bioethics Program for Undergraduates is a five-day live online program opportunity for undergraduates who are interested in bioethics issues and related careers who have limited opportunities for bioethics training.

Guidance: How does Hastings guide policy and practice?

We produce guidance, recommendations, and other information to researchers, healthcare practitioners, and policymakers with our research findings and our two journals, the Hastings Center Report and Ethics & Human Research.

• Bioethics for Aging Societies: This research portfolio explores ethical and social challenges arising from population aging.  Its goal is to help researchers, professionals, and members of the public think together about common challenges facing aging societies like the United States, with attention to foundational questions: What does it mean to live a good life in later life? And how should we live together in aging societies in ways that include and support fellow citizens who are aging or providing care?
• End-of-Life Decision-Making: The Hastings Center’s landmark Guidelines on decisions on life-sustaining treatment and care near the end of life helped shape the legal and ethical framework for such decision-making in the United States. The Guidelines were first published in 1987, updated in 2013, and being updated again now. The Guidelines cited in Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s concurrence in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health, which established the Constitutional right of patients to refuse life-sustaining interventions, including through a surrogate decision-making process.
• Ethical and Policy Guidance for Translational Xenotransplantation Clinical Trials: In 2025, on the cusp of the first-in-human clinical trials involving transplantation of pig kidneys into humans, The Hastings Center was part of a multisite research team that issued ethical and policy recommendations for these trials.
• Special Report on the Ethical Implications of Social and Behavioral Genomics: Research on how genomic differences are associated with differences in a wide variety of human social and behavioral characteristics, or phenotypes, including anxiety, subjective well-being, and educational attainment, is increasing. And there is ongoing concern about its misinterpretation and misuse. A Hasting Center consensus report provides direction for research and communications in this area of study with both significant social risks and potential benefits.
• Special Report on Trust in Healthcare and Science: While confidence in many institutions has been declining for decades, the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the breakdown in trust in health care and science. A new Hastings Center special report on trust delivers a series of findings for public officials, physicians, and scientists seeking to rebuild trust with patients and the public.
• Issue Brief on Anti-Ableist Medical Education: The Hastings Center provided strategic recommendations for medical educators who recognizes a need to address ableism in their program but is unsure what might be possible or is facing common roadblocks. The recommendations identify some of the most common challenges that arise in the pursuit of each goal and offer strategies for meeting those challenges.
• Hastings on the Hill: Designed for legislators and policymakers, and for industry leaders interested in self-regulation, this hub delivers direct access to key insights and possible approaches to the challenges of making critical decisions in the area of health AI.

Public Discourse: How does Hastings shape public understanding and conversation?

We believe that our efforts should have a positive impact, making the world a better place. Engagement and communication are core aspects of our mission. We shape public discourse on timely issues with webinars and other events, commentaries in Hastings Bioethics Forum, and interviews with the media.

• Webinars and other events: Our timely webinars include a series, launched in December 2025, on Frontiers in the Ethics of Human Reproduction, and the Big Question series, a collaboration between Hastings and the Museum of Science in Boston.
• Hastings Bioethics Forum: Our online publication publishes topical commentary that rapidly addresses emerging bioethics-related issues.
• Hastings in the media: Hastings experts are frequently quoted in the media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, and TV news. Recent examples include: