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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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Expert in Artificial Intelligence Named Hastings Center Senior Advisor
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Yes, We’re Animals: Why We Should Face Up to This Reality Now
Read the PostHastings Center NewsIn 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 the Post - Hastings Center News
December 3–Belonging: On Disability, Technology, and Community
Read the PostHastings Center NewsOn December 3, The Hastings Center will present the first in a series of public events in New York City that will explore how people with disabilities are using—or resisting—technologies to promote their own flourishing. The series is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.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 - Bioethics Forum Essay
Should Pandora’s Brain Be Regulated?
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National Endowment for the Humanities Supports New Hastings Center Project on Disability, Technology, and Flourishing
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We Should Be Concerned About Athletes Having to ‘Dope Down’
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Rationality as Understood by a Neanderthal
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Why Avoid the “M-Word” in Human Genome Editing?
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Moratorium on Human Genome Editing: Time to Get It Right
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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
Policy Recommendations: Control and Responsible Innovation of Artificial Intelligence
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Control and Responsible Innovation of Artificial Intelligence
Read the PostHastings Center NewsArtificial intelligence and robotics are beginning to transform nearly every sector and facet of modern life. While the benefits and expected benefits could be vast, there are also concerns about privacy, accountability, transparency, biases, safety, and other issues. How can we reap the benefits o...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
New Project: Could Human Cells “Humanize” Research Animals?
Read the PostHastings Center NewsAnd 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 of research with human-animal chimeras, laboratory animals that contain human cells.Read the Post - Hastings Center News
What Can Frankenstein Teach Us About Living in the Genetics Age?
Read the PostHastings Center NewsJoin 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...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 - Hastings Center News
Should We Pursue Genetic Cognitive Enhancement?
Read the PostHastings Center NewsThat 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...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 - Hastings Center News
Hastings Scholar on Public Radio’s “Science Friday”: “Frankenstein” at 200
Read the PostHastings Center NewsFrankenstein, 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...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Vive la Bioéthique? France’s Bioethics Initiative
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayLittle 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. ...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
A New Mind-Body Problem
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayNot 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...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Good Sport: Why Our Games Matter and How Doping Undermines Them
Read the PostHastings Center NewsIn the wake of Olympic doping scandals and just before the Winter Games in Pyeongchang in February, a new book by Hastings Center President Emeritus Thomas Murray explores the use of biomedical enhancements in sport and the ways in which they can subvert the values that are fundamental to athletic co...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
Four Ethical Priorities for Neurotechnologies and AI
Read the PostHastings Center NewsArtificial intelligence and brain-computer interfaces could revolutionize the treatment of paralysis, schizophrenia, and more. But these neurotechnologies must respect and preserve people’s privacy, identity, agency, and equality, states an article in the journal Nature, whose authors include H...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Genetics Symposium Draws Journalists from Around the World
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The Hastings Center Joins Partnership on AI
Read the PostHastings Center NewsWith the power of artificial intelligence, machines can perform increasingly complex tasks, such as speech, learning, planning, and problem-solving. While AI technologies may bring great value to individuals and society, many are concerned about their intended and unintended effects.Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Josephine Johnston Tackles Gene Editing in “Prestigious Speaker” Series
Read the PostHastings Center NewsUsing gene editing to modify genes responsible for devastating illnesses such as cystic fibrosis seems overwhelmingly desirable, but could there be unintended consequences? Might the ability to select for certain traits in human embryos increase discrimination or merely reflect it? These were two of ...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Should We Get Ready for Prime Time?
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayFor the first few years after my husband Howard died, I talked to him often. These were not ghostly, paranormal encounters; I was just thinking out loud about my life without him. Ten years later, these occasions happen less frequently, usually connected with an anniversary or a family event. In my i...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
International Sharing of Biological Specimens and Health Data: A Gap in the Consent Process?
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayThe Precision Medicine Initiative plans to collect data and biological samples from one million or more individuals in the United States and engage in internationally collaborative research. That means that genetic and other information about these people could be shared with researchers around the w...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
What’s Truly Outrageous About Intersex?
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Choosing Flourishing: Erik Parens Calls for Fresh Thinking on Disability
Read the PostHastings Center NewsDisability 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 couple who would like to have a deaf child. In the current issue of the Ken...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Natalie Kofler: What Role Should Humans Play in “Editing Nature”?
Read the PostHastings Center NewsNatalie 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 environment. Kofler shared insights from the Editing Nature summit, which brought together a m...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Welcomes Inaugural Rice Family Postdoctoral Fellow in Bioethics and the Humanities
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Genome Sequencing of Newborns: How Can It Be Done Responsibly?
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Helping Transgender Adolescents Make Informed Decisions About Their Reproductive Care
Read the PostHastings Center NewsDanielle 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 preserving her fertility, which could be impaired by the hormone treatments. Danielle would prefer not to, remarking, ...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
In New Frankenstein Edition, Hastings Scholar Asks, What Do We Owe Our Creations?
Read the PostHastings Center NewsWhat 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 are the central questions in an essay by Josephine Johnston, The Hastings Center’s director of research, in ...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Gene Editing, “Cultural Harms,” and Oversight Mechanisms
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayIs 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...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
Hastings Center Organizes Symposium for International Journalism Conference: Ethical Debates on New Genetic Technologies
Read the PostHastings Center NewsThe 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 ...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Association of Health Care Journalists Meeting Features Hastings Center Experts
Read the PostHastings Center NewsThe 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 addition, Hastings Center research scholar Nancy Berlinger was a panelist on a session concerning health care for refugees an...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
OrthoKantics
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayIn 2008, The President’s Council on Bioethics turned to Immanuel Kant and his deontological philosophy as a resource for deliberations on contemporary bioethical issues. The report focused on Kant’s understanding of human dignity, and his deduction that the value of a human is intrinsic. The ...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Engineering Consensus in the Development of Genome Editing Policy
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayIn the past few weeks media outlets have been reporting on the release of Human Genome Editing: Science, Ethics, and Governance from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine. The report concluded that following more research, it would be ethical to initiate clinical trials using h...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
What Does It Mean to Be Human?
Read the PostHastings Center NewsWorld-renowned theologian Harvey G. Cox, Jr. came to The Hastings Center for a wide-ranging conversation about the impact of gene editing on humanity. Joined by Daniel Callahan, cofounder of The Hastings Center, Cox discussed questions of governance, parenthood, and personhood.Read the Post - Hastings Center News
When Criminal Behavior is the Result of a Misdiagnosed Brain Illness
Read the PostHastings Center NewsDeven, a 60-year-old public school teacher, began acting erratically and irresponsibly. His doctor attributed his symptoms to depression and midlife crisis, but in fact he was suffering from frontotemporal dementia, a neurological disorder. He eventually committed financial fraud, a crime related to ...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Watch The Hastings Center’s Symposium on Gene Editing at AAAS Annual Meeting
Read the PostHastings Center NewsA symposium organized by The Hastings Center for the AAAS annual meeting took place on February 17. Click here to watch. “The Ethics of Gene Editing: Should Concerns Beyond Safety Matter in Science Policy?” discussed a major report released this week, which opens the door to the genetic modificat...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 - Hastings Center News
Can We Keep Artificial Intelligence Safe, Controllable, and Beneficial?
Read the PostHastings Center NewsWatch the video of The Hastings Center’s public event on AI, featuring three of the world’s most prominent experts on the social and ethical implications of machine intelligence, who are also participants in our project, Control and Responsible Innovation of Autonomous Machines. The event took p...Read the Post - Hastings Center News
President Solomon Identifies Four Big Questions of the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”
Read the PostHastings Center NewsAdvances in information technologies and artificial intelligence, biological sciences, and physical sciences are recognized as the Fourth Industrial Revolution, holding promise for bringing great benefits but also harms. Hastings Center president Mildred Z. Solomon identifies four questions to insure...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Imperfect Solutions to Driverless Car Dilemmas
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Erik Parens Addresses National Academies on Human Genetic Enhancement
Read the PostHastings Center NewsWhat if gene editing technologies such as CRISPR could be used to safely and effectively “enhance” future generations – to make them, for example, better able to perform on IQ tests? Hastings Center senior research scholar Erik Parens addressed that question at a public meeting of the National ...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Driverless Cars: Can There Be a Moral Algorithm?
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayThe death in May of a technology expert driving a Tesla driverless car was surely a sad event for his family, but no less a shock for a company and an industry developing such a car. The driver, Joshua Brown, had test-driven it over 45,000 miles and was, along with the company, confident about its sa...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Why College Students Use Cognitive Enhancers: It’s Not Only about Grades
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayAs the school year winds down, it’s safe to assume that many college students used stimulants such as Ritalin and Adderall to get through finals. While the students may have been motivated to improve their odds of getting good grades, a new study suggests that students’ reasons for taking sti...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Federal Recommendations on Use of Cognitive Enhancers
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayThe idea that we can get better grades at school and advance our careers by taking drugs that improve concentration and other brain functions is at once controversial and tempting. Is this cheating, or is it in the same realm as drinking coffee to increase alertness? Bioethicists, medical professiona...Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Cognition Enhancement and Technological Unemployment
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayOne objection to the development of cognitive enhancers is that they are likely to benefit mainly people who can afford to buy them, and that they would put everyone else at a disadvantage. Some philosophers, including Allen Buchanan, Anders Sandberg, and Julian Savulescu, have said that cognitive en...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
Science and the Self
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