From Bioethics Briefings
Abortion
A central philosophical question in the abortion debate concerns the moral status of the embryo and fetus. If the fetus is a person, with the same right to life as any human being who has been born, it would seem that very few, if any, abortions could be justified, because it is not morally permissible to kill children because they are unwanted or illegitimate or disabled. However, the morality of abortion is not settled so straightforwardly. Even if one accepts the argument that the fetus is a person, it does not automatically follow that it has a right to the use of the pregnant woman’s body. Thus, the morality of abortion depends not only on the moral status of the fetus, but also on whether the pregnant woman has an obligation to continue to gestate the fetus.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
Liberty and Solidarity: May We Choose Children for Sexual Orientation?
In a just-published New York Magazine piece, “The Science of Gaydar,” writer David France looks at the growing scientific evidence for innate differences between gay and straight people. France ends...Read “Liberty and Solidarity: May We Choose Children for Sexual Orientation?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Liberty Should Win: We May Choose Our Children’s Sexual Orientation
Gay marriage is morally unacceptable – here’s why: Supporters of gay marriage undermine the rights of homosexuals because they provoke increased homophobic reactions and political mobilization in an already homophobic...Read “Liberty Should Win: We May Choose Our Children’s Sexual Orientation”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Selective Parenting
For years, the abortion of fetuses likely to have disabilities has been called “selective abortion,” but, for reasons made clear in Hilde Lindemann’s thoughtful Bioethics Forumreflection on the matter, the...Bioethics Forum Essay
Children at all Costs?
In the past few weeks, the North American media has been rife with stories about unusual births following fertility treatment. The first was that of Nadya Suleman (christened by the...Bioethics Forum Essay
Questions About Using “Mosaic” Embryos in IVF
Couples undergoing IVF routinely undergo preimplantation genetic screening, or PGS, to make sure that their embryos are viable and free of genetic disease. However, some embryos have both normal and...Bioethics Forum Essay
After the Election Bioethics Faces a Rocky Road
Academic bioethics has never been popular with Republicans. Libertarians dislike academic bioethics because it seems too elitist and anti-free market. Religious thinkers worry it is technocratic, soulless and crassly utilitarian....Bioethics Forum Essay
Preventing Sex-Selective Abortions in America: A Solution in Search of a Problem
Arkansas has recently joined seven other states (Arizona, Kansas, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota) in banning abortions for sex selection. Arizona’s law requires doctors to ask...Read “Preventing Sex-Selective Abortions in America: A Solution in Search of a Problem”
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”
Hastings Center News
Helping Transgender Adolescents Make Informed Decisions About Their Reproductive Care
Danielle is a 15-year-old transgender female who is about to begin hormone therapy. Her parents would like her to explore gamete cryopreservation – sperm freezing – as a means of...Read “Helping Transgender Adolescents Make Informed Decisions About Their Reproductive Care”
Hastings Center News
Genome Sequencing of Newborns: How Can It Be Done Responsibly?
This was one of the many big questions explored at Genomics and Society, a major conference last week on the ethical, legal, and social implications of genomic research. Several Hastings...Read “Genome Sequencing of Newborns: How Can It Be Done Responsibly?”
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”
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
Cancer and Fertility: Learning from Survivors
As modern medicine improves survival odds, many young cancer patients are living long lives that bear the markings of the disease and its treatment. The side effects of chemotherapy, radiation,...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
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...Bioethics Forum Essay
Reproductive Freedom: The More Things Change . . .
An opinion piece in the New York Times, “Doctors Fail Women Who Don’t Want Children,” serves as a striking reminder that the more things seem to change, the more they...Bioethics Forum Essay
Lena Dunham’s Lesson for Doctors
In a recent essay in Vogue the actress, writer, and director Lena Dunham described her decision to have a hysterectomy at age 31 after a decade of unsuccessful attempts to...Bioethics Forum Essay
Wrongful Death Suits for Frozen Embryos: A Bad Idea
Last March, 4,000 frozen eggs and embryos were lost at University Hospitals Fertility Center in Cleveland when the temperature in cryogenic tanks spiked due to human error. Officials at University...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
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
He Jiankui’s Genetic Misadventure: Why Him? Why China?
The birth of gene-edited twin girls was announced by a young Chinese scientist He Jiankui through one of four self-made promotional videos in English on YouTube (a website officially banned...Read “He Jiankui’s Genetic Misadventure: Why Him? Why China?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
He Jiankui: A Sorry Tale of High-Stakes Science
In response to news of the world’s first babies born in China from gene-edited embryos, Sam Sternberg, a CRISPR/Cas9 researcher at Columbia University, spoke for many when he said “I’ve...Bioethics Forum Essay
Chinese Bioethicists Respond to the Case of He Jiankui
A preliminary investigation by Guangdong Province in China of He Jiankui, the scientist who created the world’s first gene-edited babies, found that “He had intentionally dodged supervision, raised funds and...Read “Chinese Bioethicists Respond to the Case of He Jiankui”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Moratorium on Human Genome Editing: Time to Get It Right
Last month, the journal Nature published a call for a global moratorium on heritable human genome editing. Despite criticism, notably from CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna, the moratorium is just what's needed now.Read “Moratorium on Human Genome Editing: Time to Get It Right”
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?”
Hastings Center News
Does Genetic Testing Pose Psychosocial Risks?
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
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
Surprising Surge of Egg Freezing during the Pandemic Raises Ethical Questions
Contrary to the expectations of many fertility clinics, demand for egg freezing has increased sharply during the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting longstanding ethical concerns about egg freezing clinics.Read “Surprising Surge of Egg Freezing during the Pandemic Raises Ethical Questions”
Bioethics Forum Essay
With Legal Challenges to Abortion, Whither Prenatal Diagnosis?
Changes in abortion law threaten to undermine a major benefit of prenatal diagnosis, namely the ability of pregnant women to choose whether or not to continue their pregnancies upon learning of a serious fetal condition.Read “With Legal Challenges to Abortion, Whither Prenatal Diagnosis?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Human Embryo Research Beyond 14 Days? International Perspectives
In late May, an international organization eliminated a 40-year prohibition against human embryo research beyond 14 days. The legal and scientific consequences will vary around the world.Read “Human Embryo Research Beyond 14 Days? International Perspectives”
Bioethics Forum Essay
The Great Leap Backward
The government and many residents of the state of Texas like to brag about their love of personal freedom and individual choice. That is why it is so strange and morally repugnant that the state has turned for guidance on how to manage reproductive decisions to the Chinese Communist Party of the Mao Zedong era.Bioethics Forum Essay
Polygenic Embryo Screening: Ethical and Legal Considerations
Last month, Bloomberg reported on what seems to be the first child born following a new kind of genome-wide screening. Four embryos were screened, and the embryo selected for implantation was the one given the best genetic odds of avoiding heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and schizophrenia in adulthood. The news has been met with some concerns about the degree of control we may now have over future generations.Read “Polygenic Embryo Screening: Ethical and Legal Considerations”
Hastings Center News
Bias and Inaccuracy in Marketing Noninvasive Prenatal Tests
Bias and inaccuracy are pervasive in the marketing of noninvasive prenatal tests (NIPTs), concludes an early-view study in the Hastings Center Report. The tests are marketed to consumers around the...Read “Bias and Inaccuracy in Marketing Noninvasive Prenatal Tests”
Hastings Center News
12 Outstanding Scholars Recognized for Work in Ethics of Disability, Transplantation, Mental Health Care, and Other Areas
The Hastings Center is pleased to announce the election of 12 new fellows. Hastings Center fellows are a group of more than 200 individuals of outstanding accomplishment whose work has...Hastings Center News
Lab-Grown Human Eggs? New Reproductive Possibilities Raise Societal Questions
The social implications of emerging reproductive technologies—including possibly creating human eggs in the lab–were explored last week by Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky and senior advisor Joel Michael Reynolds in...Read “Lab-Grown Human Eggs? New Reproductive Possibilities Raise Societal Questions”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Fetal Personhood, IVF, and the Negligent Loss of Embryos
How can the legitimate concerns of fertility patients whose embryos are negligently lost be addressed without threatening the very existence of IVF?Read “Fetal Personhood, IVF, and the Negligent Loss of Embryos”
Hastings Center News
Ravitsky Discusses Ethics of Artificial Wombs on NPR’s “All Things Considered”
Scientists around the world are testing artificial wombs. “I am absolutely pro that technology because I think it has great potential to save babies,” said Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky...Read “Ravitsky Discusses Ethics of Artificial Wombs on NPR’s “All Things Considered””
Hastings Center News
Ravitsky Discusses AI in Health Care on Radio Show
Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky was a guest on Doctor Radio Reports on SiriusXM on June 4, discussing AI in health care and other bioethics issues. Asked whether she thinks...Hastings Center News
The Ethics of IVF Embryos: Science, Choice, and Family
The latest conversation in The Big Question, a collaboration between The Hastings Center and the Museum of Science in Boston, features journalist and IVF patient Anna Louie Sussman. She sits...Read “The Ethics of IVF Embryos: Science, Choice, and Family”
