Bioethics Forum Essay
The SUPPORT Study Case: Not Vindication
Last week’s New England Journal of Medicine featured, and had an editorial about, a short opinion piece by John Lantos about the recent decision in Looney v. Moore. In that case, a Federal District judge dismissed the...Bioethics Forum Essay
Banning Abortion for Down Syndrome: Legal or Ethical Justification?
The Ohio legislature is expected to approve a bill this fall that would make it illegal for doctors to perform an abortion if the reason the woman wants a termination...Read “Banning Abortion for Down Syndrome: Legal or Ethical Justification?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Ethics, Optics, and Medicine as Work: Backstage at Planned Parenthood
Two days after a hidden camera video of Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services was released, the president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Cecile Richards, apologized for Dr....Read “Ethics, Optics, and Medicine as Work: Backstage at Planned Parenthood”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Reasonable Regulation of Surrogate Motherhood
This month France’s highest court granted legal recognition to children born to surrogates. Previously, surrogate children were deprived of any legal connection to their parents, or any civil status in...Bioethics Forum Essay
DNA Phenotyping and Baby’s First Portrait
Some researchers are at work generating images of people’s faces by relying on DNA samples alone, in a process known as DNA phenotyping.The process involves linking genetic traits and their typical...Bioethics Forum Essay
Measles, Vaccination, and the Tragedy of the Commons
After having been virtually eliminated in the United States in the year 2000, measles have made a comeback, with nearly 150 cases in 17 states and nearly 30 confirmed cases of the...Bioethics Forum Essay
Vaccine Exemptions and the Church-State Problem
The current measles outbreak has brought public attention to the ease with which vaccine exemptions are available. As the media continually inform us, 48 states allow for religious exemptions, while...Bioethics Forum Essay
Have a Miscarriage and Go to Jail? Potential Consequences of Personhood Amendments
When she was 18, Carmen Guadalupe Vasquez Aldana was sentenced to 30 years in jail. Her crime was delivering a stillborn baby. She was suspected of having had an abortion....Read “Have a Miscarriage and Go to Jail? Potential Consequences of Personhood Amendments”
Bioethics Forum Essay
What Do We Owe to Child Migrants?
From October 1, 2013, through June 15, 2014, more than 52,000 child migrants crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in South Texas, overwhelming the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland...Bioethics Forum Essay
Orphans to History: A Response to the Bucharest Early Intervention Project Investigators
I appreciate the thoughtful responses to my essay on the ethics of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP), from its investigators, Drs. Fox, Zeanah and Nelson and from Dr. Millum, one of the bioethicists...Read “Orphans to History: A Response to the Bucharest Early Intervention Project Investigators”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Romanian Orphans: A Reconsideration of the Ethics of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project
Recently I had a Susan Reverby moment. Reverby is the Wellesley historian best known for unearthing the revelations of the Guatemalan syphilis and gonorrhea studies conducted by the United States Public Health...Read “Romanian Orphans: A Reconsideration of the Ethics of the Bucharest Early Intervention Project”
Bioethics Forum Essay
“Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function” – Reason to Help, or Blame, the Poor?
“’The lower the caste,’ said Mr. Foster, ‘the shorter the oxygen.’ The first organ affected was the brain. After that the skeleton.” In Brave New World cognitive ability is carefully and intentionally...Read ““Poverty Impedes Cognitive Function” – Reason to Help, or Blame, the Poor?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Ashley and the Dangerous Myth of the Selfless Parent
Because I’ve acted as a professional advocate for people born with norm-challenging bodies, quite a number of strangers and familiars have been writing to ask me what I think of...Bioethics Forum Essay
The Nebulous Ethics of Human Germline Gene Editing
Should scientists pursue research that would enable prospective parents to edit the genes of their future children in ways that could be passed onto subsequent generations? Not for now, according...Hastings Center News
Playing God: From Frankenstein to Gene Editing
What lessons does Frankenstein hold for us today, when powerful new technologies such as gene editing and artificial intelligence are bringing us closer than ever to playing God? That question...Hastings Center News
The Ethics of Making Babies
On April 6-7, The Hastings Center co-sponsored “The Ethics of ‘Making Babies,’” Harvard Medical School’s Annual Bioethics Conference, which explored the ethical and legal issues raised by assisted reproductive technologies. ...Hastings Center News
Association of Health Care Journalists Meeting Features Hastings Center Experts
The Hastings Center teamed up with the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) to create three sessions on gene editing for its annual meeting in Orlando on April 20. In...Read “Association of Health Care Journalists Meeting Features Hastings Center Experts”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Masked Marketing: Pharmaceutical Company Funding of ADHD Patient Advocacy Groups
In 1971, the United Nations passed a resolution prohibiting its member nations from advertising psychotropic drugs to the general public. More than 40 years later, this resolution has done little...Read “Masked Marketing: Pharmaceutical Company Funding of ADHD Patient Advocacy Groups”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Should We Stop Having Children?
Not long ago, I received a questionnaire from an organization on a crusade to lower birthrates to protect the health and well-being of people and the environment. Called the Population...Bioethics Forum Essay
“The Handmaid’s Tale” and Modern-Day Surrogacy
With the wild popularity of the new TV series The Handmaid’s Tale, surrogacy is back in the limelight. The Hulu show, based on the cautionary novel of the same name by...Hastings Center News
Choosing Flourishing: Erik Parens Calls for Fresh Thinking on Disability
Disability advocates and bioethicists have long debated whether it is appropriate for individuals, particularly prospective parents engaged in reproductive decision-making, to “choose disability,” as in the case of a deaf...Read “Choosing Flourishing: Erik Parens Calls for Fresh Thinking on Disability”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Charlie Gard, Compassionate Use, and Single-Payer Health Care
The case of Charlie Gard continued to unfold this week as Charlie’s parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, withdrew their appeal for permission to bring him to the United States...Read “Charlie Gard, Compassionate Use, and Single-Payer Health Care”
Hastings Center News
Hastings Scholars in New England Journal of Medicine: Supporting Women’s Autonomy in Prenatal Testing
Noninvasive fetal genetic sequencing done early in pregnancy is poised to become a routine part of prenatal care. While it could offer patients substantial benefits, there is a risk that...Bioethics Forum Essay
Do We Have a Moral Obligation to Genetically Enhance our Children?
The Oxford philosopher Julian Savulescu, among others, has argued that prospective parents engaging in embryo selection using preimplantation genetic diagnosis not only may seek to have genetically enhanced children but...Read “Do We Have a Moral Obligation to Genetically Enhance our Children?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Is Noninvasive Prenatal Genetic Testing Eugenic?
Before noninvasive prenatal screening becomes a routine part of gestational care, society needs to have difficult conversations about the ethical implications and establish a paradigm for truly informed consent in...Bioethics Forum Essay
Natural, Medical, Political Childbirth
“It felt selfish to put my baby at serious risk by pursuing a vaginal birth,” writes Kristen Terlizzi in a collection of essays published recently in Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics....Bioethics Forum Essay
Breastfeeding and Transgender Women
A transgender woman has successfully breastfed a baby. This case has been hailed as a “breakthrough” for transgender families. I will argue that being transgender is only peripherally relevant, and...Hastings Center News
Looking for the Psychosocial Effects of Genomic Test Results
For the last quarter century, researchers have been asking whether genetic test results might have negative psychosocial effects. Anxiety, depression, disrupted relationships, and heightened stigmatization have all been posited as...Read “Looking for the Psychosocial Effects of Genomic Test Results”
Bioethics Forum Essay
“No one was listening to us.” Lessons from the Jahi McMath Case
“It was like he thought we were dirt.” This is how Jahi McMath’s grandmother, Sandra, describes having been treated by one of the doctors at the Oakland’s Children Hospital ICU....Read ““No one was listening to us.” Lessons from the Jahi McMath Case”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Is it Time to Regulate the Sale of Sugar to Minors?
In “Tackling Obesity and Disease: The Culprit Is Sugar; the Response is Legal Regulation,” published in the Hastings Center Report, Lawrence O. Gostin describes four coordinated interventions that have been...Bioethics Forum Essay
Shocking the Conscience: Justice Department versus the Health of Immigrant Women and Children
In April, the U.S. Justice Department announced that it would criminally prosecute migrants who had been apprehended after crossing the U.S.-Mexico. border. An immediate consequence of this announcement, explained in...Read “Shocking the Conscience: Justice Department versus the Health of Immigrant Women and Children”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Migrants’ Lives, Immigration Policy, and Ethics Work
The Russian poet Anna Akhmatova was a mother separated from her child by a state policy of terror. During the 1930s, she and other mothers would gather outside a Leningrad...Bioethics Forum Essay
What Are the Rules for Ethical Medication of Migrant Kids?
Reports that migrant children held by the Office of Refugee Resettlement are being drugged require an immediate and unambiguous response by the Trump administration. According to court filings, the drugs that...Read “What Are the Rules for Ethical Medication of Migrant Kids?”
Hastings Center News
The Hastings Center Celebrates Outstanding Journalists
Three journalists received The Hastings Center Awards for Excellence in Journalism on Ethics and Reprogenetics. The awards were presented at an event in New York City on December 6 that...Read “The Hastings Center Celebrates Outstanding Journalists”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Three Ethical Reasons for Vaccinating your Children
Across the country, billboards are popping up suggesting that vaccines can kill children, when the science behind vaccination is crystal clear – vaccinations are extremely safe. Researchers who study the beliefs of anti-vaxxers have found many...Bioethics Forum Essay
CRISPR in China: Why Did the Parents Give Consent?
The global scientific community has been unanimous in condemning Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who announced last week that he used the gene-editing technology called CRISPR to make permanent, heritable changes...Bioethics Forum Essay
What’s Wrong with a Fertility Doctor Using His Own Sperm?
It was unethical for a fertility doctor to use his own sperm to inseminate patients without their consent. But what are the legal harms to the women? To their children?Read “What’s Wrong with a Fertility Doctor Using His Own Sperm?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Forced from Home: Evicting Immigrants from Public Housing Harms Children’s Health
The federal government's proposed rule to disqualify families from public housing if any member is undocumented will harm children, families, and cities.Read “Forced from Home: Evicting Immigrants from Public Housing Harms Children’s Health”
Hastings Center News
Watch the Livestream: Genomics Enters the Clinic
What do patients and DTC genetic test consumers need to know about the clinical applications of genetics? That question was the focus of a recent public event at the New York Academy of Sciences, cosponsosred by The Hastings Center. Read a recap of the highlights and watch the livestream.Bioethics Forum Essay
From Outcry to Solidarity with Migrants: What Is the Good We Can Do?
Another June. Another public outcry about cruelty as policy harming migrants in United States custody. This summer, the photo of a drowned family, Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his daughter, Valeria, of El Salvador, shocks the conscience. Reporters are documenting the inhumane conditions in a Border Patrol facility where hundreds of children have been held. How should our field respond?Read “From Outcry to Solidarity with Migrants: What Is the Good We Can Do?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
It’s Unethical to Use Dental X-Rays to Send Migrant Children to Adult Detention Facilities
The U.S. government is using dental scans to determine if migrant youths are over age 18. The scans are inaccurate for this purpose, and yet they determine if children are sent to adult detention centers.Read “It’s Unethical to Use Dental X-Rays to Send Migrant Children to Adult Detention Facilities”
Bioethics Forum Essay
The Public Charge Rule Is a Eugenic Policy
Hastings Center News
Watch the Livestream Tonight: Ethics of Technology Keynote Lecture by Hastings Center’s Josephine Johnston
The Hastings Center’s director of research Josephine Johnston will explore how parental responsibilities are challenged by new genetic technologies in the keynote address of the “Ethics of Technology,” a yearlong lecture series at Washington & Lee University that begins on September 26.Bioethics Forum Essay
When Might Human Germline Editing Be Justified?
Last month, an international commission convened to consider whether and how germline editing – changing the genes passed on to children and future generations -- should proceed. The discussions focused mainly on the safety risks of the technology, which, while important, are not the only issues to consider. Any conversation regarding germline editing must also honestly and thoroughly assess the potential benefits of the technology, which, for several reasons, are more limited than generally acknowledged.Bioethics Forum Essay
Immigrant DNA Collection: Fighting Crime or Moral Panic
Last week, the Trump Administration proposed a new rule that would “require DNA-sample collection from individuals who are arrested, facing charges, or convicted, and from non-United States persons who are detained under the authority of the United States.” Collecting DNA of people detained under the Department of Homeland Security is not permitted under U.S. law. The proposed rule aims to change that.Read “Immigrant DNA Collection: Fighting Crime or Moral Panic”
Bioethics Forum Essay
What’s Wrong with Virginity Testing?
When the rapper T. I. disclosed on a podcast that he takes his 18-year-old daughter to a yearly gynecological examination to ensure that her hymen is still intact, the reaction of most people was condemnation. His obsession with her virginity is creepy, his subjecting her to an invasive procedure that has no medical value is controlling, and his willingness to talk about it publicly displays contempt for her rights to privacy and dignity. Some think that the law should prohibit physicians from performing or supervising virginity examinations. But the law is not the best means for dealing with the problem, and the problem is not simply virginity testing.Bioethics Forum Essay
Who Decides? Medical Intervention for Transgender and Intersex Children
Read “Who Decides? Medical Intervention for Transgender and Intersex Children”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Health Care for Obesity and Eating Disorders: What Needs to Change
The theme of National Eating Disorder Awareness (NEDA) week , “Come as you are: Hindsight is 20-20,” is designed to encourage those recovering from eating disorders to reflect on their journeys towards body acceptance. It also affords doctors and other health professionals an opportunity to evaluate how well they are doing to help patients reach this goal.Read “Health Care for Obesity and Eating Disorders: What Needs to Change”
Bioethics Forum Essay
On Being a Foster Parent During Covid
I knew that being a foster parent would be demanding, but I was unprepared for the extent of the challenges, which were exacerbated by the pandemic.Bioethics Forum Essay
The FDA and the Moral Distinction Between Killing and Letting Die
Why is the FDA dragging its feet in approving Covid vaccines for children under 12? Justifications lack moral weight.Read “The FDA and the Moral Distinction Between Killing and Letting Die”
Bioethics Forum Essay
With Pediatric Hospitalizations Rising, Reconsider Off-Label Covid Vaccination for Young Children
Pfizer recently announced that its trials in children 2 to 5 years old produced a weaker than expected antibody response and that it would hold off requesting authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. This news creates opportunities – and additional challenges – for off-label use of Covid-19 vaccines in children,Bioethics Forum Essay
Child Abuse in Texas
Medical care that is widely considered beneficial for transgender teenagers has been identified as child abuse in Texas. The state attorney general issued a decision that gender-affirming medical treatments such...Hastings Center News
Polygenic Embryo Testing: Understated Ethics, Unclear Utility
New technologies are expanding the reach and accessibility of preimplantation genetic testing of human embryos. But what these advances can deliver is still unclear, and a frank assessment of their...Read “Polygenic Embryo Testing: Understated Ethics, Unclear Utility”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Covid is Surging. Most Young Children Are Still Unvaccinated
Children are returning to classrooms amid another wave of Covid cases, but some public health leaders have leaned into the message that “most of us” can ignore the continued presence of Covid by taking just “a few basic steps,” such as staying up to date with vaccinations. “Most of us,” however, does not include families with young babies, among other groups for whom these steps are unavailable or insufficient.Read “Covid is Surging. Most Young Children Are Still Unvaccinated”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Our System for Reporting Child Abuse is Unethical
The system of mandatory reporting of child abuse is rife with ethical problems and can lead to unjustified custody loss.Bioethics Forum Essay
A Thousand Double Binds: Alabama, Reproductive Freedom, and Child Health
As two people who have ties to Alabama and grew up in the Deep South, we are frustrated by the state’s ceaseless assault on reproductive freedom, while its politicians continue to ignore child health. Because Alabama lawmakers and its Supreme Court justices profess to care about children–and use this as a reason to restrict reproductive freedom–we believe there is a strong responsibility to aid kids who do not have consistent access to groceries or health care.Read “A Thousand Double Binds: Alabama, Reproductive Freedom, and Child Health”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Today’s Politics Threatens Tomorrow’s Reproductive Technologies
With a new technology called in vitro gametogenesis (IVG), scientists produced an egg from a male mouse, leading to two male mice having offspring. In mice. IVG could be a game changer for women and men dealing with infertility, women of advanced maternal age, and same-sex couples.Read “Today’s Politics Threatens Tomorrow’s Reproductive Technologies”
