Hastings Bioethics Forum Writers’ Guidelines

Hastings Bioethics Forum publishes personal essays that respond to a topical issue or development related to bioethics.  

  • Begin by stating the issue or problem.
  • Give your general opinion and support it with a few key points. Don’t feel you have to be comprehensive. The aim is to persuade the reader to your perspective, not to cover all the bases of a topic (as an educational document would).
  • Write in a conversational style for a general audience. Consider writing in the first person if you have a personal story relevant to the topic.
  • Use links to sources, rather than endnotes.
  • Close by summing up your opinion, recommendations.
  • Aim for about 1,000 words.