- From Bioethics Briefings
Law Enforcement and Genetic Data
Read the PostFrom Bioethics BriefingsFraming the Issue DNA has been a powerful crime-solving tool for decades, but law enforcement’s ability to harness it for investigative purposes has grown immensely in recent years. This is due primarily to the massive amount of genetic data now housed in government-run, public, and private databas...Read the Post - From Bioethics Briefings
Genomics, Behavior, and Social Outcomes
Read the PostFrom Bioethics BriefingsFraming the Issue The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 ushered in technological advancements that have made genetic information more accessible to researchers and the public than ever before. While scientists have traditionally studied human genetics using twin, family, and adoptio...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
A Narrow Path for Optimism that Social Genomics Can Combat Inequality
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayIn his recent piece, “The genes we’re dealt,” Erik Parens puts his finger on cause for concern with what he calls social genomics: while progressives can use insights from this new field to justify combating inequality, conservatives can use them to justify the existence of that same inequality. This pessimistic conclusion—which Parens argues convincingly for—follows from a focus on insights at the societal level, that of a whole population. But there are grounds for optimism by focusing instead on potential insights from social genomics derived from local-level comparisons between different environments. Such insights could point to interventions that progressives and conservatives might just be able to agree on.Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Progressives, Conservatives, and Social Genomics
Read the PostHastings Center NewsOver the past decade, the new field of social genomics has investigated how genomic differences among people are linked to differences in their behaviors and social outcomes, including educational attainment and socioeconomic success. But the findings can be interpreted differently by progressives a...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Could Genetic Testing for Educational Attainment Cause Harm? Hastings Researcher Begins First-Ever Study to Find Out
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Transcending Borders in the Ethical Oversight of Human Genome Editing
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Hastings Center Scholars Respond to Prison Sentence of Researcher Who Created First Gene-Edited Babies
Read the PostHastings Center NewsThe 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.Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Immigrant DNA Collection: Fighting Crime or Moral Panic
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayLast 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 the Post - Hastings Center News
New Hastings Project: How Can We Responsibly Study the Genetics of Behavioral Traits?
Read the PostHastings Center NewsScientists have high hopes for using “polygenic risk scores” to better understand social and behavioral characteristics such as intelligence and obesity. But much behavioral genetics research has an ugly history and contemporary research risks exacerbating health inequities. A new Hastings Cente...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
New Hastings Researcher Tackles Questions About Genetic Research on Human Behavior
Read the PostHastings Center NewsLucas J. Matthews has been named a postdoctoral researcher at The Hastings Center and the Columbia Center for Research on Ethical, Legal & Social Implications of Psychiatric, Neurologic & Behavioral Genetics. In this two-year position, he will take on conceptual, methodological, and ethical ...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
New Book: Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing
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Hastings Partners on Unprecedented Genetics Resource Hub
Read the PostHastings Center NewsThe Hastings Center is a collaborator on a major new federally funded center – the Center for ELSI Resources and Analysis — that will fill a void in genetics research by collecting and sharing information about its ethical, legal, and social (ELSI) implications. This resource hub, the first ...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Does Genetic Testing Pose Psychosocial Risks?
Read the PostHastings Center NewsFor the last quarter century, researchers have been asking whether genetic information might have negative psychosocial effects. Anxiety, depression, disrupted relationships, and heightened stigmatization have all been posited as possible outcomes—but not consistently found. What accounts for the ...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Watch the Livestream: Genomics Enters the Clinic
Read the PostHastings Center NewsWhat 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.Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Is GINA Unjust?
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Genomics Enters the Clinic: What Should Savvy Consumers Know?
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‘Designer Babies’ (You Say That Like It’s a Bad Thing)
Read the PostHastings Center NewsAdvances in preimplantation genetic diagnosis, genetic testing, and genome editing have renewed discussion about the ethics of “designer babies,” or children selected or engineered to have certain preferred traits, like superior intelligence or tall stature. But the same techniques used to create...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
The Hastings Center Celebrates Outstanding Journalists
Read the PostHastings Center NewsThree 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 celebrated the role of journalists in helping the public understand the science of heredity and the power of geneti...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
New in Braingenethics: What Role Should Genetic Testing Play in Psychiatric Care?
Read the PostHastings Center NewsSeveral DNA tests claim to predict how well particular psychiatric medications are likely to work for individual patients with depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. And 23andMe just received approval to market the first direct-to-consumer pharmacogenomics report, which detects 33 variants ...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
The Gift and Weight of Genomic Knowledge
Read the PostHastings Center NewsWith the popularity of direct-to-consumer genetic testing, genomic knowledge is assuming a growing role in shaping human life. On the one hand, this knowledge is a gift, offering insights into the genetic drivers of disease and the geographical paths of our ancestors. On the other hand, it is a weigh...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Do You Want the Police Snooping in Your DNA?
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayIn late April, a suspect thought to be the Golden State Killer, a man who had eluded police for decades after committing a string of murders and rapes in Northern California and Orange County between 1976 and 1986, was identified on the basis of DNA evidence. Although we celebrate the dogged pursuit ...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Addressing Questions About DTC Genetic Tests and Privacy
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayThe process is fairly simple. You select one of the companies that offer direct-to-consumer genetic tests; pay online; receive a neatly packed kit that contains a tube designed to collect your spit; return the package using prepaid postage; and wait for the results that will unravel the mysteries of ...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Documentary Series Premiere on Genetic Medicine Features Hastings Scholars
Read the PostHastings Center NewsHastings Center president Mildred Z. Solomon and director of research Josephine Johnston were featured speakers at the premiere screening of The Code, a series of three documentaries on the origins of genetic medicine and what its successes and failures mean for the future. The series was produced by...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Looking for the Psychosocial Effects of Genomic Test Results
Read the PostHastings Center NewsFor 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 possible outcomes—but not consistently found. What accounts for the ...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Is Noninvasive Prenatal Genetic Testing Eugenic?
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayBefore 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 reproductive decision-making. These are admirable goals, set out in an article by Vardi...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Responsible Science in a Perilous Time: Hastings and Union of Concerned Scientists Join Forces
Read the PostHastings Center NewsClimate 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 engagement at time when anti-intellectualism on the rise and socie...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Genetics Symposium Draws Journalists from Around the World
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Do We Have a Moral Obligation to Genetically Enhance our Children?
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayThe 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 are morally obligated do so. (See, for example, his essay “Procreative Benefice...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Hastings Scholars in New England Journal of Medicine: Supporting Women’s Autonomy in Prenatal Testing
Read the PostHastings Center NewsNoninvasive 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 it will be integrated into care “without the robust, evidence-based informed consent process necessary for respe...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Genome Sequencing of Newborns: How Can It Be Done Responsibly?
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Morally Indefensible Health Care Bills
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayThere is a broad and deep moral conviction that health care should be distributed according to genuine need and not left to the cold mercy of pure market forces or the logic of actuarial fairness. Unfortunately, the proposed American Health Care Act (AHCA), passed last week in the House of Representatives, and other legislation threaten to undermine that moral commitment.Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Ethical Questions About Whole-Genome Sequencing, 23andme, and More from the Brain-Genetics Frontier
Read the PostHastings Center NewsBraingenethics Update, a free monthly newsletter, aggregates recent scientific literature, commentary, and news on questions raised by findings on the genetics of complex human behaviors. It is produced by the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and The Hastings Center as part of a...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Playing God: From Frankenstein to Gene Editing
Read the PostHastings Center NewsWhat 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 was the focus of “Spawn of Frankenstein,” a public event that featured Josephine Johnston, dir...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
DNA Phenotyping and Baby’s First Portrait
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssaySome 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 manifestations in traits such as eye color, hair color, and features associated with ancestry. The r...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
A Decade’s Worth of Gene-Environment Interaction Studies, in Hindsight
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayIn the early 2000s, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie Moffitt, and their colleagues published two papers (here and here), which suggested that we could finally begin to tell rather simple but evidence-based stories about how genetic and environmental variables interact to influence the emergence of complex ph...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Genetic Testing in Torts Litigation – Justice or Injustice?
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Genetic Information Is Not Always Benign
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayEthicists and others have been concerned that the disclosure of genetic information to patients might have negative consequences. The suspicion has been that negative effects, say, becoming depressed, are particularly likely when people are being informed about predispositions to diseases that are no...Read the Post