Bioethics Forum Essay
Support for Returning Results of Alzheimer’s Disease Biomarker Research
This used to be a purely academic question: If you could know, years before you had symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, that you were likely to develop it–and there was no...Read “Support for Returning Results of Alzheimer’s Disease Biomarker Research”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Why Is Ethics Too Often Playing Catch Up?
The question is as old as the field of bioethics: why does ethics too often not see problems coming and is then forced to play catch-up? Note that I use...Bioethics Forum Essay
The Perils of Embryo Banking?
Embryo banking is not an idea whose time has come. But at some point it might be, so a little ethical hyperventilating about the prospect is useful. A previously unknown...Bioethics Forum Essay
ES Cells and iPS Cells: A Distinction with a Difference
Gregory Kaebnick recently suggested in Bioethics Forum that apparent differences between induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and embryos created by somatic cell nuclear transfer may not be all that relevant...Read “ES Cells and iPS Cells: A Distinction with a Difference”
Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Scholar Participates in Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate on De-Extinction
Seated on a stage with a museum model of a dodo and a pair of mammoth tusks, a panel of experts debated what is exciting and what is frightening about...Read “Hastings Center Scholar Participates in Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate on De-Extinction”
Hastings Center News
Hastings President Addresses National Conference on the Wise Use of Emerging Technologies
Hastings Center president Mildred Solomon delivered a keynote address at the Future of Medicine conference, a national health care conference celebrating the convergence of technology, bioethics, population health, and preventive...Read “Hastings President Addresses National Conference on the Wise Use of Emerging Technologies”
Hastings Center News
Governance of Emerging Technology Conference Features Hastings Center Experts
Artificial intelligence, gene editing, synthetic biology – these are among the new technologies discussed at Governance of Emerging Technology 2017, organized by Arizona State University College of Law and cosponsored...Read “Governance of Emerging Technology Conference Features Hastings Center Experts”
Hastings Center News
In New Frankenstein Edition, Hastings Scholar Asks, What Do We Owe Our Creations?
What do scientists and engineers owe to their creations? What responsibility do they bear for harms that their creations cause? How does being responsible for our creations change us? These...Read “In New Frankenstein Edition, Hastings Scholar Asks, What Do We Owe Our Creations?”
Hastings Center News
Is it Ethical to Use Genetic “Evolutionary Rescue” for Conservation?
Hastings Center research scholar Gregory Kaebnick participated in a multidisciplinary workshop at the University of Montana in Missoula on May 25 – 26 to examine the potential for using genome...Read “Is it Ethical to Use Genetic “Evolutionary Rescue” for Conservation?”
Hastings Center News
Natalie Kofler: What Role Should Humans Play in “Editing Nature”?
Natalie Kofler, a postdoctoral research scientist at Yale University, visited The Hastings Center earlier this summer to explore the ethical questions surrounding the use of gene editing technologies in the...Read “Natalie Kofler: What Role Should Humans Play in “Editing Nature”?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Fix the Planet, or Change the Creatures In It?
Possibly as many as half of the coral reefs that existed 100 years ago have been destroyed, sometimes by removing them, covering them up, or blowing them up, but mostly...Hastings Center News
Responsible Science in a Perilous Time: Hastings and Union of Concerned Scientists Join Forces
Climate change, nuclear proliferation, and the advancement of gene editing and other transformative biotechnologies pose enormous global challenges. How can we promote responsible science, good governance, and opportunities for public...Hastings Center News
Hastings Scholar on Public Radio’s “Science Friday”: “Frankenstein” at 200
Frankenstein, published 200 years ago this month, asked what it means to be human. In the age of CRISPR and artificial intelligence, that question endures. On Public Radio International’s “Science...Read “Hastings Scholar on Public Radio’s “Science Friday”: “Frankenstein” at 200”
Hastings Center News
Should We Pursue Genetic Cognitive Enhancement?
That was one of the many questions explored at a public event at the New York Academy of Sciences on May 21, cosponsored by The Hastings Center, the Aspen Brain...Bioethics Forum Essay
The Only PhD Scientist in Congress Speaks About Truth, Politics, and Human Flourishing
At a time when facts are distorted, disregarded, and ignored in policy making and political discourse, the need in Washington for seekers and defenders of truth has perhaps never been...Read “The Only PhD Scientist in Congress Speaks About Truth, Politics, and Human Flourishing”
Hastings Center News
New Project: Public Deliberation on Gene Editing in the Wild
With funding from the National Science Foundation, a new Hastings Center project will examine the rationale and challenges of public deliberation on the release of genetically modified insects, mammals, and...Read “New Project: Public Deliberation on Gene Editing in the Wild”
Hastings Center News
New Project: Could Human Cells “Humanize” Research Animals?
And what does “humanize” even mean? Those are among the questions being explored in a new Hastings Center project, funded by the National Institutes of Health, on the ethical oversight...Read “New Project: Could Human Cells “Humanize” Research Animals?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Should We Edit the Human Germline? Is Consensus Possible or Even Desirable?
I started writing this on my way back to New York from the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, held in Hong Kong November 27 to 29, where the...Read “Should We Edit the Human Germline? Is Consensus Possible or Even Desirable?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Hannah Arendt in St. Peter’s Square
Neither one of us expected to be talking about Hannah Arendt at the Vatican. We had been invited to give talks at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on the scientific and ethical challenges posed by personalized medicine. Walking across the cobblestones of St. Peter’s Square we began to discuss how society regulates biomedical research. Are institutional review boards capable of dealing with innovations like personalized medicine? Are they too bound by regulations? Can they ask larger questions of meaning when simply following the rules won't suffice? And most worrisome, has their bureaucratic function caused them to mistake regulatory compliance for ethical reflection?Hastings Center News
Yes, We’re Animals: Why We Should Face Up to This Reality Now
In an age of new biotechnologies, from gene editing to neural enhancement, is there a tension in the idea that humans have special value because they’re somehow different or exceptional in nature? Dwelling on the idea that there’s something extraordinary about being human – and ignoring our kinship with life on our planet – is becoming a problem, says Melanie Challenger, an award-winning British writer and a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics who has been a visiting scholar at The Hastings Center in November.Read “Yes, We’re Animals: Why We Should Face Up to This Reality Now”
Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Scholars Respond to Prison Sentence of Researcher Who Created First Gene-Edited Babies
The Compassionate Use Advisory Committee, headed by Hastings Center Fellow Arthur Caplan, of NYU Langone, received the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration’s Innovation Award. The committee was recognized for transforming how expanded access requests, also known as compassionate use requests, are granted by drug developers.