Jonathan D. MorenoPosts by Jonathan D. MorenoBioethics Forum EssayOppenheimer’s Nuclear Value Judgment Wasn’t the FirstChristopher Nolan’s film, “Oppenheimer,” which opens in theaters on July 21, highlights a value judgment that the Manhattan Project scientists had to make before Trinity, the test of the first atomic bomb.Read Oppenheimer’s Nuclear Value Judgment Wasn’t the FirstBioethics Forum EssayEnough Already with the Medical Cheap ShotsAll manner of officials in high places in the United States have been coming under scrutiny lately as to their fitness for office. Donald Trump Jr. piled on to right-wing attacks on...Read Enough Already with the Medical Cheap ShotsBioethics Forum EssayPopular Culture and Bioethics: SeveranceSeverance, a popular Emmy Award-winning show streaming on Apple TV+, is a rich cultural artifact. It concerns a team of office workers at a morally questionable company that performs brain surgery on employees to sever the consciousness of their work and personal lives. The four of us were so taken by the show that we wrote these reflections on its important ethical themes.Read Popular Culture and Bioethics: SeveranceBioethics Forum EssayFrom Gene-Edited Embryos to Covid: China Faces Regulatory and Ethical ChallengesOver the last two years, China has updated some regulations on human genetic engineering and assisted reproduction and established a national committee to guide and supervise bioethics nationwide. But there are legal gaps in some of the regulations and tension between competing values: the desire to encourage new research and to potentially inhibit it by imposing stricter ethics regulations.Read From Gene-Edited Embryos to Covid: China Faces Regulatory and Ethical ChallengesBioethics Forum EssayBioethics Without RoeThe Supreme Court decision in Roe v. Wade has played a subtle but critical role in the history of bioethics in America. Would American bioethics discourse be changed with the end of a constitutionally protected right to abortion?Read Bioethics Without RoeBioethics Forum EssayBioethics in the Second Cold WarBioethics is an integral part of the liberal international order intentionally developed after World War II. Following the Russian war on Ukraine there is every reason to believe that the set of norms and institutions that preserved peace in Europe through the first Cold War will be revised according to new assumptions that will structure international relations in a second Cold War.Read Bioethics in the Second Cold WarBioethics Forum EssayCovid-19 in Argentina and the Abuse of BioethicsMany Latin American countries are being devastated by excessive loss of life from Covid-19, many sectors of society falling below the poverty line, and health systems being overwhelmed. As collateral damage, some countries in the region are witnessing an eruption of populism and autocratic trends and an increasing erosion of already weak and unstable democracies. Can bioethics be a useful tool for managing this crisis? Argentina provides a case study.Read Covid-19 in Argentina and the Abuse of BioethicsBioethics Forum EssayEfficacy is Relative in a Public Health Crisis: Evaluating the Next Wave of Covid-19 VaccinesA third Covid vaccine candidate moving closer to potential FDA authorization is less effective than the two Covid vaccines already authorized in the United States. Is it ethical to offer a vaccine with lower efficacy? Is it ethical not to offer it in a public health emergency?Read Efficacy is Relative in a Public Health Crisis: Evaluating the Next Wave of Covid-19 VaccinesBioethics Forum EssayDid Russia’s Most Influential Bioethicist Get a Coronavirus Vaccine?Along with the announcement that his government had approved Sputnik V, the supposed Russian coronavirus vaccine, Vladimir Putin also indulged in a moment of paternal pride: Wanting to confirm his personal confidence in the vaccine, he mentioned that one of his daughters was among the early recipients. This raises a couple of intriguing questions: Which daughter was it? And why does it matter?Read Did Russia’s Most Influential Bioethicist Get a Coronavirus Vaccine?Bioethics Forum EssayIs the Coronavirus Pandemic Accelerating Bioethics Nationalism?The global crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic and the rush to create and distribute a vaccine widely hoped to be a “silver bullet” that can facilitate a return to “normalcy” threatens to upend seven decades of assumptions about bioethical norms.Read Is the Coronavirus Pandemic Accelerating Bioethics Nationalism?Related PostsEventBioethics and the Rules-Based International OrderJonathan Moreno, PhD, the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor at the University of Pennsylvania will deliver a special lecture at The Hastings Center at 1 pm on Wednesday, April...Read Bioethics and the Rules-Based International Order Science and Technology EthicsTechnology ethics: Technology ethics comprises values and ethical considerations that should guide regulation and oversight, protect privacy and confidentiality, and require responsible actions in the creation and use of technology....Read Science and Technology Ethics Why We GiveWhy I Give… Ann Margaret Mayer, Ed.M., M.L.S. Ann Margaret Mayer was a curious and creative lifelong learner who loved science and history—as well as world travel, gardening, knitting, and...Read Why We Give