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Science and Society

  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Motivated Ignorance: A Challenge for Science Communication and Democracy

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Many people are deeply interested in the political process and awash in relevant information., but nevertheless often grossly misinformed, holding confident but unfounded opinions at odds with widely accessible evidence The recent riot at Capitol Hill is just one illustration–albeit a horrifying one–of such misinformation and its potential consequences. The anti-vaccine movement is another example.
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  • Hastings Center News

    Protecting Communities from COVID-19

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    Hastings Center News
    FOUR STEPS TO PROTECT COMMUNITIES FROM COVID-19 AND RESTORE THE ECONOMY
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  • Public Trust in Science

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    HASTINGS CONVERSATIONS: A SERIES Dr. Anthony Fauci explored the ethical issues raised by the erosion of trust in science in a new virtual discussion hosted by The Hastings Center. The nation’s top infectious diseases official and Hastings president Mildred Solomon looked at how we can improve ...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Before We Turn to Digital Contact Tracing for Covid, Remember Surveillance in the Sixties

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Is it unrealistic to believe that phone apps for digital Covid contact tracing can be designed and regulated in ways that prevent the information they collect from being misused? It's worth remembering surveillance of Vietnam War protesters and Martin Luther King Jr.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Globalized Science in a Deglobalizing World

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    The arrest of Harvard chemist and nanobiologist Charles Lieber on charges of lying about his research funding from China encapsulates two phenomena currently in tension: the global nature of modern science and attempts to nationalize the fruits of science.
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  • Hastings Center News

    Could Genetic Testing for Educational Attainment Cause Harm? Hastings Researcher Begins First-Ever Study to Find Out

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    Hastings Center News
    Hastings Center postdoctoral researcher Lucas J. Matthews is undertaking the first-ever study to examine the potential harms of telling students about their genetic propensity for educational attainment.
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  • Hastings Center News

    Expert in Artificial Intelligence Named Hastings Center Senior Advisor

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    Hastings Center News
    Gretchen Greene, an internationally recognized expert on artificial intelligence policy and ethics, including face and emotion recognition, has been named a senior advisor to The Hastings Center. 
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Chinese Bioethicists: He Jiankui’s Crime is More than Illegal Medical Practice

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Professionals and the public in China first learned of the jail sentence of He Jiankui from the report of Xinhua News Agency. No information, including any interpretation, was provided by the Court. But the reported words of the sentence are so ambiguous as to leave room for different interpretations. We believe that the public has the right to know more than Xinhua News Agency reported.
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  • Hastings Center News

    Hastings Center Scholars Respond to Prison Sentence of Researcher Who Created First Gene-Edited Babies

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    Hastings Center News
    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.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Citizen Science: Potential Benefits and Ethical Challenges

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Why do citizen science projects get started, and what are the ethical challenges facing them? These questions underlie “When Citizens Do Science: Stories from Labs, Garages, and Beyond,” published in Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics,  which explores the world of science happening outside the care...
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  • Hastings Center News

    Daniel Callahan, 1930-2019

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    Hastings Center News
    Daniel Callahan, a national voice for responsible health and science who pioneered the field of bioethics, died on July 16, three days before his 89th birthday. A prodigious author and one of the world’s preeminent bioethics scholars, Callahan cofounded The Hastings Center, the world’s first bio...
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  • Hastings Center News

    Hastings President Addresses the Question: Is Ethical AI an Oxymoron?

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    Hastings Center News
    As artificial intelligence transforms health care, what should be done to assure that it brings about improvements and greater equity? To address those questions, Hastings Center President Mildred Solomon joined a panel at the Aspen Ideas: Health Festival called “Ethical Artificial Intelligence: Oxymoron or Possibility?”
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  • Hastings Center News

    Early-Career Scholar Essay Award

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    Hastings Center News
    Artificial intelligence, Crispr gene editing, and other powerful new technologies have profound implications for society. They will likely bring both potential benefits and safety concerns and have other ethical and social ramifications. How can we reap the benefits, while minimizing harms? What kind...
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  • Hastings Center News

    The Hastings Center Celebrates Outstanding Journalists

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    Hastings Center News
    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 celebrated the role of journalists in helping the public understand the science of heredity and the power of geneti...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    He Jiankui’s Genetic Misadventure: Why Him? Why China?

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    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 in China) on November 25. Three days later, at the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing held in ...
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  • Hastings Center News

    New Project: Public Deliberation on Gene Editing in the Wild

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    Hastings Center News
    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 other organisms into the environment.
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  • Hastings Center News

    What Can Frankenstein Teach Us About Living in the Genetics Age?

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    Hastings Center News
    Join us to mark the 200th anniversary of the publication of Frankenstein with a panel discussion that will explore the novel from the perspectives of bioethics, literary criticism, and science fiction. Speakers include Victor Lavalle, associate professor of writing at Columbia University and author o...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Wrongful Death Suits for Frozen Embryos: A Bad Idea

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    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 Hospitals have apologized repeatedly to the affected patients, and say that they are working to provide ...
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  • Hastings Center News

    The Gift and Weight of Genomic Knowledge

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    Hastings Center News
    With 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...
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  • Hastings Center News

    Should Gene-Edited Mice Be Released to Control Lyme Disease?

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    Hastings Center News
    Hastings Center research scholar Carolyn P. Neuhaus participated in a panel discussion on Martha’s Vineyard on July 12 to discuss a proposal to release genetically modified mice to curb the spread of Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. A Netflix film crew recorded the event, which featured...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Do You Want the Police Snooping in Your DNA?

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    In 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 ...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    The Only PhD Scientist in Congress Speaks About Truth, Politics, and Human Flourishing

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    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 greater. I discussed the state of affairs with Representative Bill Foster, a Democrat from Illinois who prides himsel...
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  • Hastings Center News

    World Science Festival Features Hastings Scholars on Gene Editing

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    Hastings Center News
    Where do we draw the line between safe and dangerous applications of CRISPR, the gene editing technology that allows us to make permanent, even heritable, changes to the genetic code? How should scientists approach public engagement before field testing genetically modified crops in and around commun...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Addressing Questions About DTC Genetic Tests and Privacy

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    The 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 ...
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  • Hastings Center News

    New Hastings Center Project: Public Deliberation for a Democracy in Crisis

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    Hastings Center News
    Technologies are transforming the planet and its inhabitants, human and nonhuman, calling out for assessment and wise decision-making. Yet trust in science is eroding and polarization deeply threatens our ability to solve collective problems, especially ones emerging in science and health policy R...
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  • Hastings Center News

    Documentary Series Premiere on Genetic Medicine Features Hastings Scholars

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    Hastings Center News
    Hastings 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...
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  • Hastings Center News

    Should We Pursue Genetic Cognitive Enhancement?

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    Hastings Center News
    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 Institute and the New York Academy of Sciences. “The Enhanced Human: Risks and Opportunities” examined existing and emerging enhancemen...
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  • Hastings Center News

    Looking for the Psychosocial Effects of Genomic Test Results

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    Hastings Center News
    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 possible outcomes—but not consistently found. What accounts for the ...
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  • Hastings Center News

    Hastings Scholar on Public Radio’s “Science Friday”: “Frankenstein” at 200

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    Hastings Center News
    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 Friday,” Hastings Center director of research Josephine Johnston participated in a dis...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Vive la Bioéthique? France’s Bioethics Initiative

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Little noticed in the United States but a big deal in France, President Emmanuel Macron announced in January that he is creating a bioethics commission to review the country’s policies on a wide range of subjects, including human reproduction, euthanasia, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence. ...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    A New Mind-Body Problem

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Not since Rene Descartes gazed from his garret window in early 17th-century Paris and wondered whether those were men or hats and coats covering “automatic machines” he saw roaming the streets has the issue of personal identity and your cranium been of such import. Descartes feared a world that h...
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  • Hastings Center News

    Hastings Center Scholar Addresses Implications of CDC Avoiding Seven Words

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    Hastings Center News
    Vulnerable. Entitlement. Diversity. Transgender. Fetus. Evidence-based. Science-based. Last week, news outlets reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been advised to avoid using these seven words in budget documents. In an interview with Medscape Hastings Center research sc...
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  • Hastings Center News

    Responsible Science in a Perilous Time: Hastings and Union of Concerned Scientists Join Forces

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    Hastings Center News
    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 engagement at time when anti-intellectualism on the rise and socie...
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  • Hastings Center News

    International Conference Co-Organized by Hastings Examines the Ethics of Gene Editing

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    Hastings Center News
    Following recent advances in gene editing technologies, including the first recorded use of CRISPR/Cas9 in human embryos in the United States, The Hastings Center cosponsored an international conference, “Genome Editing: Biomedical and Ethical Perspectives,” which took place in Belgrade, Serbia f...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    On Sims’s Legacy: Work for Bioethics

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    My  colleague Susan Reverby surely got this right: It is time to consider anew what to do about Dr. J. Marion Sims, that is, what to do about the New York City statue that commemorates him, and accordingly, about the medicine, history, and bioethics that have remembered and/or revered him. The works...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    What’s Truly Outrageous About Intersex?

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    On August 5, the World News Daily Report published an article that has been circulating on my Facebook newsfeed every day since: “Hermaphrodite Impregnates Self, Gives Birth to Hermaphrodite Twins.”
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    This Doctor Experimented on Slaves: It’s Time to Remove or Redo His Statue

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    “There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it,” Mayor Mitch Landrieu declared to explain the removal of four Confederate monuments in New Orleans in May. The statues were, he argued, part of the terrorism campaign that threatened African American citizens for more than...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    The Climate Agreement: Understanding, and Leveraging, Public Opinion

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    After years of fluctuating and troubled efforts, the nations of the world in December of 2015 came to the remarkable agreement to work together to reduce global warming. On June 2, President Trump announced that our country will withdraw from that agreement.
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    The Value of Bioethics Against Authoritarian Populism

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Populism has been influencing public discourse and election outcomes in several countries recently. The degree to which populism has a sway on elections varies with the electoral system in each country but the impact is likely to be substantial regardless of electoral outcomes.
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  • Hastings Center News

    Hastings President Addresses National Conference on the Wise Use of Emerging Technologies

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    Hastings Center News
    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 medicine. The event, presented by Centura Health in Denver on May 11 ...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Gene Editing, “Cultural Harms,” and Oversight Mechanisms

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Is it reasonable to hope that concerns about “cultural harms” can be integrated into oversight mechanisms for technologies like gene editing? That question was raised anew for me by the recent National Academy of Sciences report on human genome editing and at a recent conference at Harvard on the...
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  • Hastings Center News

    Hastings Center Organizes Symposium for International Journalism Conference: Ethical Debates on New Genetic Technologies

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    Hastings Center News
    The Hastings Center is working with the World Conference of Science Journalists to organize a pre-conference symposium, “New Genetic Technologies: Ethical Debates and Global Science Policy.” The 10th World Conference of Science Journalists, which will take place in San Francisco on October 26 ...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Continuing the Dialogue on Bioethics and Populism

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Franklin Miller’s recent post in Bioethics Forum responded to our essay, “Bioethics and Populism: How Should Our Field Respond?”  in the current issue of the Hastings Center Report. There, we suggested that rising global authoritarian populism presents opportunities for (and, one might even s...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    On Living to 100 or More

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Sometime around my mid-50’s I began to ask myself a question: how long should I want to live? My father had died at 64, my mother at 85, my various uncles and aunts in their 60s and 70s. Occasional news stories, always with a picture, reported on those few people who made it to 100. I am now 85 an...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    New Hope for Detecting Consciousness in Vegetative Patients: Ethical Implications

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Patients diagnosed as being in a persistent vegetative state have figured prominently in the law and medical ethics relating to end-of-life decisions since the case of Karen Quinlan in 1976. These patients have profound brain injuries that leave them in the seemingly anomalous condition of being awak...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Of Kinks, Crimes, and Kinds: The Paraphilias Proposal for the DSM-5

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    When is a kinky interest really sick?
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Womb Gay

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    Reading an excerpt from the new book Sex and War has got me thinking about the Mormons and California’s Prop 8. Sex and War features a meditation on how biology might help to explain why and how humans kill each other. The battle between the Mormons and the LBGT civil rights movement, now being wag...
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  • Bioethics Forum Essay

    Sex Is Good

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    Bioethics Forum Essay
    But not always. And that’s kind of the point.
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