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Re-Opening the Nation: What Values Should Guide Us?

A Hastings Center Conversation with

Ezekiel Emanuel, Danielle Allen, and Mildred Solomon

The Hastings Center hosted “Re-Opening the Nation: What Values Should Guide Us?,” an online discussion of the ethical issues related to easing Covid-19 pandemic restrictions in the United States. As the nation weighs when and how to re-open the economy, we will need to build a new normal that leads with key values like public health, economic well-being, and respect for civil liberties. These values are often in tension with one another, or seen to be, but they can be successfully managed with forethought and sensitivity. 

Watch this Hastings Center Conversation with:

  • Zeke Emanuel, Vice Provost for Global Initiatives and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Hastings Center Fellow
  • Danielle Allen, James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics
  • Mildred Z. Solomon, President of The Hastings Center and Professor of Global Health & Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School. 

Read the transcript

Selected resources on reopening (mentioned in the discussion):

Center for American Progress: https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/healthcare/news/2020/04/03/482613/national-state-plan-end-coronavirus-crisis/

Harvard University Safra Center for Ethics:
https://ethics.harvard.edu/covid-roadmap 

American Enterprise Institute:
https://www.aei.org/research-products/report/national-coronavirus-response-a-road-map-to-reopening/

The Hastings Center addresses social and ethical issues in health care, science, and technology. It is the oldest independent, nonpartisan, interdisciplinary research institute of its kind in the world.

Danielle Allen is the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard University, and Director of Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics. A political theorist, Dr. Allen has published broadly in democratic theory, political sociology, and the history of political thought. She is the author of a number of books on citizenship and justice, including Talking to Strangers: Anxieties of Citizenship since Brown vs. the Board of Education (2004), Why Plato Wrote (2010), Our Declaration: A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality (2014), Education and Equality (2016), and Cuz: The Life and Times of Michael A. (2017).

Ezekiel Emanuel is Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, the Diane v.S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor, and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. From January 2009 to January 2011, he served as special advisor for health policy to the director of the Office of Management and Budget in the White House, where he played a leadership role in crafting the Affordable Care Act. From 1997 to 2011, he was Chair of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. He is also an oncologist.

Mildred Solomon is President of The Hastings Center. Both a bioethicist and a social scientist, Dr. Solomon’s research has focused on palliative care, organ transplantation, medical professionalism, and the responsible conduct of research. She serves on policy commissions and advises international non-governmental organizations on a wide range of health and science policy topics. In addition to her leadership role at The Hastings Center, Solomon is Professor of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where she directs the school’s Fellowship in Bioethics. Before coming to The Hastings Center, she was Senior Director for Implementation Science at the Association of American Medical Schools. She holds a B.A. from Smith College and a doctorate in educational research from Harvard.

Continue the conversation on Twitter at #EthicsforReopening.