The Hastings Center Bioethics Timeline
“Bioethics” has been defined in several different ways. Most broadly, it is the interdisciplinary study of ethical, legal, and social issues arising in the life sciences and health care. Though...Covid-19 Update: Essential Resources on Immigrant Health
Updated December 12, 2020 The novel coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities of low-wage immigrants to viral infection and severe Covid-19 illness. This public health emergency compounds the social (non-medical)...Read “Covid-19 Update: Essential Resources on Immigrant Health”
Ethical Challenges in the Middle Tier of Covid-19 Vaccine Allocation: Guidance for Organizational Decision-Making
Download PDF Nancy Berlinger, PhD; Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH; Tia Powell, MD; Aimee Milliken, RN, PhD, HEC-C; Parinda Khatri, PhD; Fatma Marouf, JD, MPH; Keisha Ray, PhD; Johanna Crane, PhD...COVID-19 RESOURCES
Ethics Guidance and Resources on Covid-19
As communities across the world work to navigate the pandemic, The Hastings Center has assembled ethics resources for responding to novel coronavirus Covid-19. We are updating this hub throughout the...Fellows
Hastings Center Fellows are an elected group of individuals of outstanding accomplishment whose work has informed scholarship and/or public understanding of complex ethical issues in health, health care, life sciences...Hastings Center News
Ethics Guidance and Resources on Covid-19
As communities across the world work to navigate the pandemic, The Hastings Center has assembled ethics resources for responding to novel coronavirus Covid-19. We are updating this hub throughout the...COVID-19
Ethical Framework for Health Care Institutions & Guidelines for Institutional Ethics Services Responding to the Coronavirus Pandemic
Managing Uncertainty, Safeguarding Communities, Guiding Practice Download as PDF Nancy Berlinger, PhD; Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH; Tia Powell, MD; D. Micah Hester, PhD; Aimee Milliken, RN, PhD, HEC-C; Rachel Fabi,...Contact Us
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Immigrant Health in the Public Charge Era: 15 Essential Articles
The public charge rule went into effect nationwide yesterday, formalizing the “public charge era” that began when the draft rule was leaked three years ago. The rule jeopardizes eligibility for legal permanent residency if applicants are deemed public charges based on even short-term use of federally funded programs, such as health insurance, housing subsidies, or food stamps. Anticipation of the rule has had chilling effects on the behavior of immigrants, who have avoided or withdrawn from health-related programs for which they are eligible. What follows is a selected bibliography designed to support learning and progress on immigrant health in a complex policy environment.Read “Immigrant Health in the Public Charge Era: 15 Essential Articles”
Access to Therapeutic and Palliative Drugs in the Context of Covid-19: Justice and the Relief of Suffering
COVID-19
Responding to Covid-19 as a Regional Public Health Challenge: Preliminary Guidelines for Regional Collaboration Involving Hospitals
How Should the Public Learn?
Principal Investigators: Bruce Jennings, Gregory Kaebnick, Mildred Solomon Co-Investigators: Michael Gusmano, Carolyn P. Neuhaus Funder: John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Democracy requires the capacity to receive information through...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Competing Commitments in Clinical Trials
Scholars of the ethics of clinical trials have long recognized a tension between the therapeutic obligations1 of clinicians (physician, nurses, and other health professionals) and the scientific demands of clinical...From Bioethics Briefings
Why a Bioethics Briefing Book?
I arrived at The Hastings Center for my first tour of duty in the fall of 1979, and it did not take long to realize that the Center was working...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
When Is It Ethical to Withhold a Research Incentive?
Researchers want to conduct an online survey to determine respondents’ attitudes toward and concerns about uses of deidentified tissue in research biobanks to see whether their concerns affect their willingness...AHA and ABIMF join as sponsors of “Righting the Wrongs: Tackling Health Inequities”
The American Hospital Association and the ABIM Foundation join with the American Medical Association and the American Nurses Association as sponsors of January’s national summit on health equity, convened by...Read “AHA and ABIMF join as sponsors of “Righting the Wrongs: Tackling Health Inequities””
Job Announcement: Research Scholar
Description: This position offers a superb opportunity for an early career, mid-career, or established scholar to devote themselves to research and public outreach on questions of national and international significance....Covid-19 Ethical Framework and Supplements
Ethical Framework for Health Care Institutions Responding to Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19); Guidelines for Institutional Ethics Services Responding to Covid-19, March 16, 2020, https://www.thehastingscenter.org/ethicalframeworkcovid19/. Responding to Covid-19 as a Regional...Covid-19 Ethical Framework and Supplements
Ethical Framework for Health Care Institutions Responding to Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19); Guidelines for Institutional Ethics Services Responding to Covid-19:March 16, 2020An ethically sound framework for health care during public...ANA and AMA join AAMC and The Hastings Center as sponsors of “Righting the Wrongs: Tackling Health Inequities”
NEW YORK/SILVER SPRING/CHICAGO, NOVEMBER 9 – The American Nurses Association and the American Medical Association join The Hastings Center, a global ethics leader, and the Association of American Medical Colleges Center...COVID-19
Ethics Resources for Conducting Research in Public Health Emergencies
Read “Ethics Resources for Conducting Research in Public Health Emergencies”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Genomic Research with Organs and Tissues Originating from Transplant Donors: Ethical Considerations for the GTEx Project
Human biospecimens are essential to uncovering the basis of human health and disease. Each year, millions of biospecimens are collected from both living and deceased donors for a variety of...Bioethics Forum Essay
Vaccinated and Still Isolated: The Ethics of Overprotecting Nursing Home Residents
The pandemic is not over, but light is beginning to crest the horizon. Vaccination rates, especially among older adults and their caregivers, are rising. As we begin to relax physical...Read “Vaccinated and Still Isolated: The Ethics of Overprotecting Nursing Home Residents”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Implementing Single IRB Review of Multisite Research: Lessons Learned from the National Children’s Study
Abstract: In keeping with recent regulatory and policy requirements, a large proportion of multisite studies will be using a single institutional review board (IRB) of record. Further research is needed...From Assisted Reproduction to Stem Cells: The Hastings Center Bioethics Briefing Book
Project launched in January 2008 Principal Investigator: Mary Crowley Funders: The Greenwall Foundation and The Lounsbery Foundation Purpose To provide campaigns, journalists, and policymakers with a ready reference on about three dozen issues in...Read “From Assisted Reproduction to Stem Cells: The Hastings Center Bioethics Briefing Book”
Genomic Findings on Human Behavior and Social Outcomes: FAQs
CONTENTS Genomic Studies of Educational Traits & Outcomes Genomic Studies of Social and Environmental Factors Genomic Studies of Psychological and Psychiatric Behaviors Genomic Studies of Sexual Behaviors Miscellaneous About this...Read “Genomic Findings on Human Behavior and Social Outcomes: FAQs”
Hastings Center Report Press Kit
Latest Issue Access content from the latest issue and archives here. Editors Gregory E. Kaebnick, Editor kaebnickg@thehastingscenter.org 845-424-4040, ext. 227 Laura Haupt, Managing Editor hauptl@thehastingscenter.org 845-424-4040, ext. 212 Nora Porter, Art Director portern@thehastingscenter.org...PRESS RELEASE: 2-7-13 Hastings Center Resources Chart Progress in Debate over Medical Research with Animals
(Garrison, NY) The scientific and ethical debate over the use of animals in medical research has raged for years, but perspectives are shifting, viewpoints are becoming more nuanced, and new...Ethics & Human Research Press Kit
Latest Issue Access content from the latest issue here. Editors Karen J. Maschke, Editor maschkek@thehastingscenter.org 845-424-4040, ext. 223 Laura Haupt, Managing Editor hauptl@thehastingscenter.org 845-424-4040, ext. 212 Nora Porter, Art Director portern@thehastingscenter.org 845-424-4040, ext....Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Professional
The Hastings Center, founded in 1969 by philosopher Daniel Callahan and psychoanalyst Willard Gaylin, is the oldest independent, nonpartisan, interdisciplinary research institute of its kind in the world. Critical in...Home Page
PRESS RELEASE: 10.12.10 Joseph J. Fins Elected to Institute of Medicine of the National Academies
Joseph J. Fins, M.D., chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and a Hastings Center board member, was elected to the Institute...Terms of Use
This Website (“Website”) is an online information and communications service provided by The Hastings Center (“The Center,” “we” or “our”). Please carefully read the following Terms of Use before using...The Hastings Center Beneficence Society
Credited by many as having founded the field of bioethics, The Hastings Center has invested more than 50 years addressing complex challenges at the intersection of health, science, and technology—including issues of aging...Hastings Center News
TRANSCRIPT – Breakthrough or Breakdown: Should the FDA Have Approved the New Alzheimer’s Drug?
[Transcript created by voice recognition] Danielle Pacia, The Hastings Center Hello and welcome to Breakthrough or Breakdown. Should the FDA have approved the new Alzheimer’s drug, a Hastings Center conversation?...Hastings Center Report Submission Guidelines
General Manuscript Submission and Review The Hastings Center Report takes a broad understanding of bioethics. We welcome manuscript submissions that address social and ethical issues in health care, the life...HASTINGS CENTER REPORT
Responding to COVID-19: How to Navigate a Public Health Emergency Legally and Ethically
Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman, and Sarah A. Wetter [This article appears in the Hastings Center Report, March-April 2020] Few novel or emerging infectious diseases have posed such vital...Read “Responding to COVID-19: How to Navigate a Public Health Emergency Legally and Ethically”
Hastings Center News
Caste Author Isabel Wilkerson to Keynote National Forum, “Righting the Wrongs: Tackling Health Inequities.”
The Hastings Center and the Association of American Medical Colleges Center for Health Justice Announce Two-Day Summit on Health Equity. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 15 — The Hastings Center, a global...Caste Author Isabel Wilkerson to Keynote National Forum, “Righting the Wrongs: Tackling Health Inequities.”
The Hastings Center and the Association of American Medical Colleges Center for Health Justice Announce Two-Day Summit on Health Equity. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 15 — The Hastings Center, a global...From Bioethics Briefings
Pandemics: The Ethics of Mandatory and Voluntary Interventions
[This chapter is adapted from “Influenza Pandemic,” by Alexandra Minna Stern and Howard Markel, in From Birth to Death and Bench to Clinic: The Hastings Center Bioethics Briefing Book for...Read “Pandemics: The Ethics of Mandatory and Voluntary Interventions”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Money, Coercion, and Undue Inducement: Attitudes about Payments to Research Participants
Researchers nearly always offer money to healthy individuals—and increasingly to individuals who are ill—as an incentive to enroll in research studies and as compensation for research participation.1Yet there is a...Read “Money, Coercion, and Undue Inducement: Attitudes about Payments to Research Participants”
Other Ways To Give
Matching Gifts The Center welcomes employer matching gifts. Please contact your Human Resources representative to determine if your company has a matching gift program. The completed form may be sent...Ethics & Human Research Submission Guidelines
Aims & Scope Ethics & Human Research (formerly IRB: Ethics & Human Research) aims to foster critical analysis of issues in science and health care that have implications for human...PRESS RELEASE: 10.24.12 Survival of the Affordable Care Act Assessed in New Commentaries
(Garrison, NY) As the presidential candidates clash over the fate of the Affordable Care Act, a set of seven essays by leading legal experts, economists, and scholars examines the implications...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 10.24.12 Survival of the Affordable Care Act Assessed in New Commentaries”
IRB Submission Guidelines
Authors’ Instructions IRB: Ethics & Human Research is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes scholarly articles offering insight on issues of critical importance to research with human subjects, including findings and analysis...Press Release: Omenn & Darling Gift to Bolster Trust in Scientific Innovation
PRESS RELEASE Contact: Susan Gilbert For Immediate Release 1-845-424-4040, ext. 244 communications@thehastingscenter.org Omenn & Darling gift to bolster trust in scientific innovation NEW YORK, February 10 – Preeminent science researcher...Read “Press Release: Omenn & Darling Gift to Bolster Trust in Scientific Innovation”
Press Release: Hastings Fellow Alondra Nelson Named to Key Role
PRESS RELEASE Contact: Susan Gilbert For Immediate Release 1-845-424-4040, ext. 244 communications@thehastingscenter.org Hastings Fellow Alondra Nelson Named to Key Role NEW YORK, February 22 –Alondra Nelson, a Hastings Center Fellow,...Read “Press Release: Hastings Fellow Alondra Nelson Named to Key Role”
Hastings Center News
Protecting Communities from Covid-19
FOUR STEPS TO PROTECT COMMUNITIES FROM COVID-19 AND RESTORE THE ECONOMY The Hastings Center, the oldest independent, nonpartisan research institute in the world focused on social and ethical issues in...Press Release: Health Equity, Racism, and This Moment in Time
PRESS RELEASE Contact: Susan Gilbert For Immediate Release 1-845-424-4040, ext. 244 gilberts@thehastingscenter.org Health Equity, Racism, and This Moment in TimeHastings Center online event next week The...Read “Press Release: Health Equity, Racism, and This Moment in Time”
COVID-19
COVID-19: Supporting Ethical Care and Responding to Moral Distress in a Public Health Emergency
Privacy Policy
Updated March, 2020 The Hastings Center is dedicated to service in the field of bioethics, and a key component of that service is an unwavering commitment to privacy. The Hastings...Gene Editing & Human Flourishing
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the goals of the program? Secondary school educators will complete the program with greater comfort identifying the ethical issues present in the genetic topics they teach, and prepared...FAQs on Human Genomic Studies Submission Guidelines
This guide helps authors submitting materials to “FAQs on Human Genomic Studies” and outlines basic criteria for inclusion in the repository. Have a question? Contact the editorial team via genomicsfaq@thehastingscenter.org...Report Finds Breakdown in Civic Discourse Threatens U.S. Democracy
PRESS RELEASE Contact: Susan Gilbert For Immediate Release 1-845-424-4040, ext. 244 communications@thehastingscenter.org NEW YORK, February 25 – A new report released by The Hastings Center, the leading bioethics research institute,...Read “Report Finds Breakdown in Civic Discourse Threatens U.S. Democracy”
PRESS RELEASE: 03.12.12 The Hastings Center Names Mildred Z. Solomon Next President
(Garrison, NY) The Board of Directors of The Hastings Center announced today that Dr. Mildred Z. Solomon, Senior Director for Implementation Science at the Association of American Medical Colleges and...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 03.12.12 The Hastings Center Names Mildred Z. Solomon Next President”
PRESS RELEASE 10-01-2018: Announcing Ethics & Human Research
The Hastings Center is announcing an exciting new direction for its journal on research ethics. Beginning with the January-February 2019 issue, the Center will launch Ethics & Human Research (E&HR), a...Read “PRESS RELEASE 10-01-2018: Announcing Ethics & Human Research”
New Guidance for Middle-Tier Covid-19 Vaccine Allocation Focuses on Equity and Effectiveness in Reaching High-Risk Populations
PRESS RELEASE Contact: Susan Gilbert For Immediate Release 1-845-424-4040, ext. 244 communications@thehastingscenter.org New Guidance for Middle-Tier Covid-19 Vaccine Allocation Focuses on Equity and Effectiveness in Reaching High-Risk Populations Ethical Considerations...Job Announcement: Project Manager-Research Assistant
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Who Should Go First in Trials with Scarce Agents? The Views of Potential Participants
Demands from AIDS activists in the 1980s for access to drugs not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) resulted in multiple programs to increase access, including single-patient...Read “Who Should Go First in Trials with Scarce Agents? The Views of Potential Participants”
From Bioethics Briefings
Enhancing Humans
Framing the Issue When Guttenberg invented the printing press, making the written word accessible to the masses, he could have hardly envisioned today’s world where the entirety of human knowledge...Bioethics Forum Essay
Freedom’s Just Another Word for . . . Restriction?
What tools does a university administration have at its disposal to shut up critics on its own faculty? The University of Minnesota wants to know. The university’s administration is exploring...Bioethics Forum Essay
Canada Confronts its Own “Tuskegee” Studies
Last summer’s revelations that malnourished Aboriginals in Canada served as unwitting and unprotected subjects in nutritional experiments in the 1940s and 1950s brought a sharp reaction–though the research took place...Bioethics Forum Essay
Nationalizing IRBs for Biomedical Research – and for Justice
I know that when my medical school sends us all an announcement that we’ve broken a record for funded research, I’m supposed to be happy. Wrong week for that. Shortly...Read “Nationalizing IRBs for Biomedical Research – and for Justice”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Warp Speed Bioethics
It takes less time than ever to publish papers. But is quality sacrificed by doing bioethics at warp speed, especially during the Covid pandemic?IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Broad Data Sharing in Genetic Research: Views of Institutional Review Board Professionals
Institutional review boards (IRBs) play a key role in ensuring that genetic research with humans meets ethical and regulatory standards. They are involved with issues such as how research participants...Read “Broad Data Sharing in Genetic Research: Views of Institutional Review Board Professionals”
MEDIA ADVISORY: 02.21.12 Role Reversal – Bioethicist interviews reporter on end of life
(Garrison, NY) Daniel Callahan, bioethicist and cofounder of the Hastings Center, has not only written about end-of-life issues for more than 40 years, he has also been interviewed by countless...Read “MEDIA ADVISORY: 02.21.12 Role Reversal – Bioethicist interviews reporter on end of life”
Job Announcement: Chief Development Officer
THE MISSION AND BACKGROUND: Founded in 1969, The Hastings Center is the oldest independent, interdisciplinary research institute of its kind in the world. We are the world’s leading voice concerning...PRESS RELEASE: 02.15.11 Welcome Back to the Expanded Health Care Cost Monitor Blog
(Garrison, NY) The Hastings Center has relaunched the Health Care Cost Monitor and expanded its scope. Originally created to fill a void by focusing on health care costs as a component of...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 02.15.11 Welcome Back to the Expanded Health Care Cost Monitor Blog”
MEDIA ADVISORY: 05.17.12 Hastings Center launches website with resources on undocumented immigrants and access to health care
(Garrison, NY) Who are the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.? What are their greatest health care needs? How do they get health care now, and what are their...PRESS RELEASE: 3-19-2013 Immigration Reform Needs to Address Access to Health Care
(Garrison, NY) With comprehensive immigration reform a priority for President Obama and gaining bipartisan and public support, there is a need and an opportunity to consider how the millions of...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 3-19-2013 Immigration Reform Needs to Address Access to Health Care”
PRESS RELEASE: 12.13.12 Over 65 Blog Focuses on Seniors Health and Security
(Garrison, NY) Against the backdrop of federal budget negotiations bearing on the future of Medicare and Social Security are ongoing concerns about an aging population: health, economic well-being, family needs,...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 12.13.12 Over 65 Blog Focuses on Seniors Health and Security”
MEDIA ADVISORY: 10.16.12 Hastings Center Adds New Online Resources on Undocumented Patients’ Access to Health Care
(Garrison, NY) Health care and immigration are two of the most contentious issues in American politics today, but in the first presidential debate neither of the candidates addressed the question...Press Release: 5/7/2013 Hastings Center Calls on Health Care Professionals and Organizations to Meet Standards for Good Care Near the End of Life
(Garrison, NY) People with chronic or life-threatening illnesses often experience problems with their care, including confusion and conflict over how to make good decisions, poor communication with care providers, inadequate...Bioethics Forum Essay
Belief in a Just World: A Case Study in Public Health Ethics
Why did portraying a married, working, loving, family-oriented, and religious couple with a disabled child bring out consistently negative reactions among the public toward allowing this family access to government-subsidized...Read “Belief in a Just World: A Case Study in Public Health Ethics”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Promoting Research with Organ Transplant Patients
Abstract: Given the numerous questions related to patient selection, surgical technique, and posttransplant care requiring evidence-based answers, transplantation programs should be conducting research with patients waiting to receive an organ...Common Genetic Variants Associated with Cognitive Performance Identified Using Proxy-Phenotype Method
This document was prepared by several of the co-authors of the paper and board members of the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium. For clarifications or additional questions, please contact: Daniel...Literature and Other Resources on Impact Assessment for Synthetic Biology
Websites and Online Introductions Synthetic Biology “Synthetic Biology,” by Michele S. Garfinkel, Drew Endy, Gerald Epstein, and Robert M. Friedman The Synthetic Biology Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center...Read “Literature and Other Resources on Impact Assessment for Synthetic Biology”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Three Lessons from Leah
Leah Zallman's meticulous research helps us all to tell the story of what immigrants give to this nation and what they should receive from this nation.From Bioethics Briefings
Physician-Assisted Death
Framing the Issue The question of whether severely ill suffering patients are entitled to a physician’s help to end their suffering by ending their lives has been debated since antiquity....From Bioethics Briefings
Family Caregiving
Framing the Issue Families have always taken care of their ill and disabled relatives. Why should it be any different now? This disarmingly simple question often opens a policy discussion...From Bioethics Briefings
Clinical Trials
Framing the Issue Clinical research with human participants utilizes a systematic approach to help understand human health and illness in order to find safe and effective ways to prevent, diagnose,...Ethics, Genetics, and the Future of Sport: The Implications of Genetic Modification and Genetic Selection
Project launched in June 2005 Principal Investigator: Thomas H. Murray Funder: United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) Purpose The project had four basic aims: Develop a realistic assessment of the likely time horizon...Our Team
Gretchen Greene
Bioethics Forum Essay
Hastings, Botswana, and Edinburgh: Bioethics Meets Detective Fiction
In the bioethics world, all roads eventually lead to Hastings, whether that means the Center in Garrison, N.Y., or Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., where the Center was born in 1969 and lived...Read “Hastings, Botswana, and Edinburgh: Bioethics Meets Detective Fiction”
Online Giving
Please support our work. Founded over 50 years ago, The Hastings Center is the only independent bioethics research institute in the nation. That status—and our ability to identify key challenges,...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Research Ethics Committees in Nigeria: A Survey of Operations, Functions, and Needs
Heightened global commitment to research on diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria has led to increased research over the past decade in many African countries, including Nigeria. This increase...Read “Research Ethics Committees in Nigeria: A Survey of Operations, Functions, and Needs”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Two Cheers for Choosing Wisely
The Choosing Wisely campaign is one of the most exciting experiments in health care in quite a while. If it lives up to its potential, Choosing Wisely could prevent some of the...PRESS RELEASE: 10-7-13 Improving the Quality of Clinical Ethics Consultants
Clinical ethicists play a vital role in hospitals and other health care systems by helping to resolve ethical conflicts that arise between patients, families, and clinicians about end-of-life care and...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 10-7-13 Improving the Quality of Clinical Ethics Consultants”
PRESS RELEASE: 07-11-2019 Hastings Center Report, May-June 2019
Read “PRESS RELEASE: 07-11-2019 Hastings Center Report, May-June 2019”
PRESS RELEASE: 11.13.12 Western Media Coverage of Female Genital Surgeries in Africa is “Hyperbolic” and “One-Sided,” says International Policy Group
(Garrison, NY) Despite widespread condemnation of female genital surgeries as a form of mutilation and a violation of human rights, an international advisory group argues that the practice is poorly...New in the Hastings Center Report: Crisis Standards of Care, September-October 2021 issue
Press release HCR September-October 2021 LH New in the Hastings Center Report: Crisis Standards of Care, September-October 2021 issue As Covid spreads and leaves intensive care units at or near capacity...Read “New in the Hastings Center Report: Crisis Standards of Care, September-October 2021 issue”
PRESS RELEASE: 08-27-2019 Hastings Center Report, July-August 2019
Read “PRESS RELEASE: 08-27-2019 Hastings Center Report, July-August 2019”
PRESS RELEASE: 1-15-13 Five Physicians Honored for Outstanding Care of Patients Near the End of Life
(Garrison NY, January 15, 2013) Five physicians who have distinguished themselves in caring for patients near the end of life have been named recipients of the 2013 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon...PRESS RELEASE: 1-22-13 Bioethics Leader Calls for Bold Approach to Fighting Obesity
(Garrison, NY) Arguing that obesity “may be the most difficult and elusive public health problem the United States has ever encountered” and that anti-obesity efforts having made little discernible difference,...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 1-22-13 Bioethics Leader Calls for Bold Approach to Fighting Obesity”
Ethics of Medical Research with Animals: Science, Values, and Alternatives
Project launched in June 2011 Principal Investigators: Thomas H. Murray, Gregory Kaebnick, and Susan Gilbert Funder:The Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund Project background Research involving animals has been a cornerstone of medical progress...Read “Ethics of Medical Research with Animals: Science, Values, and Alternatives”
Physicians and Nurses Recognized for Providing Exceptional End of Life Care
Six physicians and three nurses selected to receive the 2022 Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Awards. The Hastings Center and The Cunniff-Dixon Foundation are pleased to announce nine recipients of awards that...Read “Physicians and Nurses Recognized for Providing Exceptional End of Life Care ”
PRESS RELEASE: 1-23-13 Experts Propose Overhaul of Ethics Oversight of Research
(Garrison, NY) The longstanding ethical framework for protecting human volunteers in medical research needs to be replaced because it is outdated and can impede efforts to improve health care quality,...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 1-23-13 Experts Propose Overhaul of Ethics Oversight of Research”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Low-T, High Profit?
An unusually lengthy and undoubtedly expensive 90-second commercial for Androgel aired during men’s swimming and volleyball events in NBC’s coverage of the Olympics. The ad touts Androgel 1.62%, a more concentrated formulation...Recreating the wild: De-extinction, technology, and the ethics of conservation
Is extinction forever? Efforts are under way to use gene editing and other tools of biotechnology to “recreate” extinct species such as the woolly mammoth and the passenger pigeon. Could...Read “Recreating the wild: De-extinction, technology, and the ethics of conservation”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Report from China: Ethical Questions on the Response to the Coronavirus
Hastings Center fellows in China discuss ethical questions about the response to the spreading coronavirus.Read “Report from China: Ethical Questions on the Response to the Coronavirus”
PRESS RELEASE 10-3-2017: New in the Hastings Center Report
The Case for Resource Sensitivity: Why It Is Ethical to Provide Cheaper, Less Effective Treatments in Global Health Govind C. Persad and Ezekiel J. Emanuel When Dr. Hortense screens her...Read “PRESS RELEASE 10-3-2017: New in the Hastings Center Report”
PRESS RELEASE 10-22-2018: New in The Hastings Center Report, September-October 2018
Disentangling Conscience Protections Nadia N. Sawicki Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced its intention to strengthen the enforcement of legal protections for health care...Read “PRESS RELEASE 10-22-2018: New in The Hastings Center Report, September-October 2018”
New in Ethics & Human Research, November-December 2021 Issue: Pregnant Participants in Research
Institutional review boards can be inconsistent and can lack transparency in decision-making. In this issue of Ethics & Human Research, Andrea Seykora, Director of Public Policy and Legal Affairs at...PRESS RELEASE 5-11-2017: Setting Priorities for Future Work on Aging
It’s unusual for a funder to recognize that large societal problems are best addressed after deep reflection and a deliberate and inclusive process of consultation and priority-setting. “But then,” says...Read “PRESS RELEASE 5-11-2017: Setting Priorities for Future Work on Aging”
MEDIA ADVISORY: 5-16-13 Ethical Dilemmas Raised by New Stem Cell Research
The report yesterday that scientists in Oregon had created the first human embryonic stem cells through cloning renewed hopes for the development of stem cell therapies for degenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer’s...Read “MEDIA ADVISORY: 5-16-13 Ethical Dilemmas Raised by New Stem Cell Research”
PRESS RELEASE: 9/4/13 Childhood obesity demands more doctor-parent discussion
Surveys show that few pediatricians and other doctors who treat overweight children discuss weight with their parents. But in avoiding the topic, doctors are missing an opportunity to help control...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 9/4/13 Childhood obesity demands more doctor-parent discussion”
PRESS RELEASE: 07-08-2019 Does Genetic Testing Pose Psychosocial Risks?
Read “PRESS RELEASE: 07-08-2019 Does Genetic Testing Pose Psychosocial Risks?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Doctors Googling Patients
In the current issue of the Hastings Center Report, two teams of physicians and ethicists at Penn State consider the ethics of using online research and social networking tools to learn...Bioethics Forum Essay
The Choice Bazaar
Some years ago I wrote a book on abortion that espoused women’s right to choose abortion and was later cited in Roe v. Wade. That should have made me popular with...PRESS RELEASE 4-5-2018: New in the Hastings Center Report: March-April 2018
Progress: Its Glories and Pitfalls Daniel Callahan In his new book, Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress, Stephen Pinker, a cognitive psychologist and linguist at Harvard,...Read “PRESS RELEASE 4-5-2018: New in the Hastings Center Report: March-April 2018”
PRESS RELEASE 10-2-2017: Breakthrough Cancer Treatment Brings Hope and Challenges
The first gene therapy for cancer, approved by the Food Drug Administration in August, will transform the treatment of a particular kind of cancer in children and young adults. It’s...Read “PRESS RELEASE 10-2-2017: Breakthrough Cancer Treatment Brings Hope and Challenges”
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
The Presidential Bioethics Debate 2012
With the first presidential debate beginning tonight and the race entering the final stretch, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney are making their final policy pitches to the American public. While...New in Ethics & Human Research, September-October 2021 Issue: Pregnant Participants in Research
Pregnant people are often excluded from research without clear justification, even when there is little harm to the fetus in minimal‐risk research. In this issue of Ethics & Human Research,...PRESS RELEASE 10-16-2018: What Makes a Good Life in Late Life? Citizenship and Justice in Aging Societies
The United States is an aging society, where one in five people will be 65 or older by 2035. While bioethics scholarship on aging has historically concerned itself with issues...Visiting Scholars
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic the visiting scholar program is suspended until further notice. Please contact visitors@thehastingscenter.org for additional information. The Hastings Center welcomes scholars in...Bioethics Forum Essay
Coronavirus Response Is Insufficient for Vulnerable New Yorkers
Read “Coronavirus Response Is Insufficient for Vulnerable New Yorkers”
PRESS RELEASE: 4-30-2013 The Ethics of Knowledge: When Should Hazardous Scientific Information be Made Public?
(Garrison, NY) How can we best address the potential threat posed by “dual use” research – scientific findings that can be used for good or evil? An article and two...PRESS RELEASE: 09-03-2019 Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing
Read “PRESS RELEASE: 09-03-2019 Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing”
MEDIA ADVISORY: 4/2/13 Hastings Center Fellow to Deliver George W. Gay Lecture at Harvard
Dan Brock, the Frances Glessner Lee Professor of Medical Ethics in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School, will deliver the 2013 George W. Gay...Read “MEDIA ADVISORY: 4/2/13 Hastings Center Fellow to Deliver George W. Gay Lecture at Harvard”
PRESS RELEASE: 11.19.12 Two New Books by Daniel Callahan: A Memoir and a Collected Writing on “Roots of Bioethics”
(Garrison, NY) Daniel Callahan, who established the field of bioethics with the co-founding of The Hastings Center in 1969, has two new books: a memoir, In Search of the Good:...PRESS RELEASE: 02.22.12 Attitudes Vary about Payments to Research Participants
(Garrison, NY) Researchers almost always offer money as an incentive for healthy volunteers to enroll in research studies, but does payment amount to coercion or undue inducement to participate in...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 02.22.12 Attitudes Vary about Payments to Research Participants”
Event to Examine Disability as a Creative Force
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 22: The Hastings Center, a global ethics leader, announce that three artists and writers will lead a special virtual event — “Enjoying: Disability as a Creative Force”...PRESS RELEASE: 05.01.12 Protections Needed for Some People Who Say No to Research, Study Concludes
(Garrison, NY) Although federal regulations provide protections for people who participate in research, protections are also needed for some people who decline to participate and may face harmful repercussions as...Hastings Center News
What’s Actually Wrong with Sports Doping?
What’s actually wrong with doping—if all athletes had access to the same performance-enhancing drugs, wouldn’t that make competitions fair? If the purpose of sport is to maximize performance, shouldn’t we...PRESS RELEASE: 03.27.12 Bioethics Gets Personal with Hastings’ First Consumer Website and Hastings-NOVA Special on Personalized Medicine Premiering on PBS on March 28
(Garrison, NY) Will genetic testing and personalized medicine change the way you think about your life? Should it? What can you really learn about your future from direct-to-consumer genetic tests–or...PRESS RELEASE: 03.22.12 Hastings Bioethicist Contributes to Consensus Guidelines on Responsibility of Biobanks to Return Results to Participants in Genomic Research
(Garrison, NY) Karen J. Maschke, a research scholar at The Hastings Center, is coauthor of a consensus article that explicitly outlines “significant new responsibilities” for biobanks concerning the return of...PRESS RELEASE 5-23-2019: New in Ethics & Human Research, May-June 2019
Burden or Opportunity? Parent Experiences When Approached for Research in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Erin Paquette, Avani Shukla, Jacob Davidson, Karen Rychlik, and Matthew Davis There’s an ongoing...Read “PRESS RELEASE 5-23-2019: New in Ethics & Human Research, May-June 2019”
Bioethics Forum Essay
The Trial of “Death by Medicine”: An Interview with Lisa Krieger
On February 5, Lisa Krieger, a science and medicine writer for the Mercury News in San Jose, Ca, published a remarkably moving and insightful article about the protracted dying of her 88-year-old father. Suffering...Read “The Trial of “Death by Medicine”: An Interview with Lisa Krieger”
PRESS RELEASE: 12-11-2019 Ethics & Human Research, November-December 2019
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Ethics of Medical Research with Animals: Science, Values, and Alternatives
Principal Investigators: Thomas H. Murray, Gregory Kaebnick, and Susan Gilbert Funder: The Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund The goal of the project was to bring together people with different points of view and...Read “Ethics of Medical Research with Animals: Science, Values, and Alternatives”
PRESS RELEASE: 05.30.12 When is it Ethical to Prescribe Placebos?
(Garrison, NY) The American Medical Association’s Code of Ethics prohibits physicians from prescribing treatments that they consider to be placebos unless the patients know this and agree to take them...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 05.30.12 When is it Ethical to Prescribe Placebos?”
PRESS RELEASE: 02.07.12 Justifying Insurance Coverage for Orphan Drugs
(Garrison, NY) How can insurers justify spending hundreds of thousands of dollars per patient per year on “orphan drugs” – extremely expensive medications for rare conditions that are mostly chronic and life-threatening...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 02.07.12 Justifying Insurance Coverage for Orphan Drugs”
PRESS RELEASE: 01.10.12 Five Physicians Honored for End-of-Life Care
(Garrison, NY) A pioneer in establishing best practices for palliative care is one of the five American physicians being honored today for improving the care of patients near the end...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 01.10.12 Five Physicians Honored for End-of-Life Care”
Hastings Center News
Hastings Kicks Off 50th Anniversary Celebrations
New book edited by Hastings Center scholars explores fundamental questions about the nature and well-being of human beings at a time when a revolutionary new biotechnology could permanently change the human species.PRESS RELEASE: 12.07.11 Hasting Center Awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Grant
(Garrison, NY) The National Endowment for the Humanities has awarded The Hastings Center a challenge grant to support an endowment for a major new humanities research program.The $425,000 grant, to...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 12.07.11 Hasting Center Awarded National Endowment for the Humanities Grant”
PRESS RELEASE: 12.06.11 Hastings Center, Kent Place School Embark on Pioneering High School Bioethics Program
(Garrison, NY ) The Hastings Center and the Ethics Institute at Kent Place School are joining forces on a pilot project in which a group of high school students will...PRESS RELEASE: 11.22.11 Study of Women with Anorexia Nervosa Finds Inner Conflicts Over the “Real” Self that Have Treatment Implications
(Garrison, NY) People with anorexia nervosa struggle with questions about their real, or “authentic,” self – whether their illness is separate from or integral to them – and this conflict...Hastings Center and Cunniff Dixon Foundation Announce Nursing Awards
The Hastings Center and the Cunniff-Dixon Foundation are pleased to announce two new $25,000 awards to honor outstanding care provided by hospice and palliative care nurses to patients nearing the...Read “Hastings Center and Cunniff Dixon Foundation Announce Nursing Awards”
PRESS RELEASE: 11.10.11 Hastings Center Elects 10 New Fellows, Expands International Reach
(Garrison, NY) The Hastings Center, the world’s first research center devoted to bioethics, has strengthened its international network of Fellows by electing ten new members from four different countries. The...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 11.10.11 Hastings Center Elects 10 New Fellows, Expands International Reach”
PRESS RELEASE 2-20-2018: Special Report: Governance of Emerging Technologies: Aligning Policy Analysis with the Public’s Values
Emerging biotechnologies hold great promise but could pose great risks. However, the benefits and costs are often difficult to anticipate and hard to quantify, and they can vary widely among...PRESS RELEASE: 10-11-2019 Hastings Center Report, September-October 2019
Read “PRESS RELEASE: 10-11-2019 Hastings Center Report, September-October 2019”
PRESS RELEASE: 12-10-2019 Hastings Center Report, November-December 2019
Read “PRESS RELEASE: 12-10-2019 Hastings Center Report, November-December 2019”
MEDIA ADVISORY: 11.02.12 Daniel Callahan and Marcia Angell on Death with Dignity Ballot Initiative
(Garrison, NY) New commentaries by Daniel Callahan, cofounder of The Hastings Center, and Marcia Angell, M.D., senior lecturer in social medicine at Harvard Medical School, give opposing views on the...Bioethics Forum Essay
Crowdfunding for Covid-Related Needs: Unfair and Inadequate
One-third of all new GoFundMe campaigns in the United States are for COVID-19-related needs. This shows where we have failed as a society. It is a makeshift response to institutional failures and not a fair or sustainable solution to crises.Read “Crowdfunding for Covid-Related Needs: Unfair and Inadequate”
PRESS RELEASE: 10-01-2019 Ethics & Human Research, September-October 2019
Read “PRESS RELEASE: 10-01-2019 Ethics & Human Research, September-October 2019”
PRESS RELEASE: 10.15.12 Personalized Genomic Medicine – How Much Can It Really Empower Patients?
(Garrison, NY) Personalized genomic medicine is hailed as a revolution that will empower patients to take control of their own health care, but it could end up taking control away...PRESS RELEASE 3-04-2019: Should Patients Be Considered Consumers?
There is broad support for building health care systems that are patient centered, seen as a means of improving health outcomes and as morally worthy in itself. But the concept...Read “PRESS RELEASE 3-04-2019: Should Patients Be Considered Consumers?”
PRESS RELEASE: 09.11.12 Analyzing the “Facebook Effect” on Organ and Tissue Donation
(Garrison, NY) When Facebook introduced a feature that enables people to register to become organ and tissue donors, thousands did so, dwarfing any previous donation initiative, write Blair L. Sadler...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 09.11.12 Analyzing the “Facebook Effect” on Organ and Tissue Donation”
PRESS RELEASE 6-6-2018: New Hastings Center Project: How Should the Public Learn?
Technologies are transforming the planet and all its inhabitants, human and nonhuman, calling out for assessment and wise decision making. Yet trust in science is eroding and polarization deeply threatens...Read “PRESS RELEASE 6-6-2018: New Hastings Center Project: How Should the Public Learn?”
PRESS RELEASE 11-27-2017: Reimagining Autonomy in Reproductive Medicine
Do the reproductive choices of prospective parents truly align with their values and priorities? How do doctors, reproductive technologies, and the law influence those choices? And why should certain women...Read “PRESS RELEASE 11-27-2017: Reimagining Autonomy in Reproductive Medicine”
PRESS RELEASE 8-15-2018: Should All Babies Have Their Genomes Sequenced?
As the cost of genome sequencing decreases, researchers and clinicians are debating whether all newborns should be sequenced at birth, facilitating a lifetime of personalized medical care. But while sequencing...Read “PRESS RELEASE 8-15-2018: Should All Babies Have Their Genomes Sequenced?”
PRESS RELEASE: 08.15.12 Study Finds Pregnant Women Support Some Participation in Research
(Garrison, NY) A new study involving pregnant women who enrolled in randomized vaccine trials challenges the longstanding reluctance to conduct research with pregnant women because of ethical concerns about the...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 08.15.12 Study Finds Pregnant Women Support Some Participation in Research”
PRESS RELEASE 9-26-2018: Debating Modern Medical Technologies: The Politics of Safety, Effectiveness, and Patient Access
Does a new medicine or diagnostic test work? Is it safe? Should the government approve it and insurers pay for it? The answers are not as straightforward as they may...PRESS RELEASE: 08.10.12 Prenatal Whole Genome Sequencing: Just Because We Can, Should We?
(Garrison, NY) With whole genome sequencing quickly becoming more affordable and accessible, we need to pay more attention to the massive amount of information it will deliver to parents –...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 08.10.12 Prenatal Whole Genome Sequencing: Just Because We Can, Should We?”
PRESS RELEASE 11-30-2017: NEW IN THE HASTINGS CENTER REPORT
Standard-of-care sprawl and clinician self-interest, health implications of ending DACA, questions about CAR-T gene therapy, and more in the November-December 2017 issue. Stemming the Standard-of-Care Sprawl: Clinician Self-Interest and the...Read “PRESS RELEASE 11-30-2017: NEW IN THE HASTINGS CENTER REPORT”
MEDIA ADVISORY: 07.26.12 Bioethicist Tom Murray available to discuss doping, fairness, and other ethical issues in sport as Olympics approach
(Garrison, NY) With the Olympics beginning on July 27, attention is focused on the world’s top athletes, as well as ethical issues surrounding the use of performance-enhancing drugs and other...PRESS RELEASE 1-10-2018: GOOD SPORT: WHY OUR GAMES MATTER AND HOW DOPING UNDERMINES THEM
New book by Hastings Center President Emeritus Thomas Murray examines the use of sports enhancements against the values that give athletic competition its meaning. In the wake of Olympic doping...Read “PRESS RELEASE 1-10-2018: GOOD SPORT: WHY OUR GAMES MATTER AND HOW DOPING UNDERMINES THEM”
Bioethics Forum Essay
COVID-19 and the Global Ethics Freefall
Since the initial outbreak in Wuhan last December, the national and global responses to COVID-19 have been in ethics freefall.MEDIA ADVISORY: 07.24.12 Hastings Center Board member and Fellow on White House panel: Greening America’s Hospitals
(Garrison, NY) Successful strategies that hospitals and other health care facilities can use to increase environmental sustainability, reduce costs, and improve patient care are the focus of an event taking...PRESS RELEASE: 07.12.12 Medical Ethicists Face Cancer in New Book
(Garrison, NY) “Since my diagnosis, I had been immersed in a crash course in real-world medical ethics,” writes Rebecca Dresser, editor of Malignant: Medical Ethicists Confront Cancer, published by Oxford...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 07.12.12 Medical Ethicists Face Cancer in New Book”
PRESS RELEASE: 06.28.12 “Recruitment by Genotype” for Genetic Research Poses Ethical Challenges, Study Finds
(Garrison, NY) A potentially powerful strategy for studying the significance of human genetic variants is to recruit people identified by previous genetic research as having particular variants. But that strategy...Bioethics Forum Essay
Coronavirus and the Crisis of Trust
Influenza and coronavirus cause similar symptoms probably through similar modes of transmission. What is unique about coronavirus is that misinformation, missteps, conspiracies, and cover-ups have left their mark on public trust.MEDIA ADVISORY: 06.22.12 Is the Mandate Fair? The Bioethics of the Affordable Care Act
(Garrison, NY) However the Supreme Court rules on the constitutionality of the insurance mandate and other aspects of the Affordable Care Act, the law raises foundational issues for society about...Read “MEDIA ADVISORY: 06.22.12 Is the Mandate Fair? The Bioethics of the Affordable Care Act”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Bioethics Books in Brief
A lot of new bioethics books come to The Hastings Center. Some of them end up getting reviewed in the Hastings Center Report, but not as many as we’d like. So,...PRESS RELEASE 2-21-2019: New in the Hastings Center Report, January-February 2019
Social Media, E-Health, and Medical Ethics Mélanie Terrasse, Moti Gorin, and Dominic Sisti Given the profound influence of social media and emerging evidence of its effects on human behavior and...Read “PRESS RELEASE 2-21-2019: New in the Hastings Center Report, January-February 2019”
MEDIA ADVISORY: 03.08.10 Reporter Resources on the Obama Health Care Plan and Costs
(Garrison,NY) President Obama released a proposal for health reform last week that, according to the White House Web site, aims to “make health care more affordable, make health insurers more accountable,...Read “MEDIA ADVISORY: 03.08.10 Reporter Resources on the Obama Health Care Plan and Costs”
PRESS RELEASE: 01.13.11 Next-Generation Hospital Design Can Improve Health—and Save Money
(Garrison, NY) Extra large private hospital rooms with plenty of natural light and artwork may seem like unaffordable luxuries, but new research shows that these and other architecture and design...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 01.13.11 Next-Generation Hospital Design Can Improve Health—and Save Money”
NEWS RELEASE: 2-24-2020 Hastings Center Report, January-February 2020
Read “NEWS RELEASE: 2-24-2020 Hastings Center Report, January-February 2020”
PRESS RELEASE: 03.24.11 Thomas H. Murray to Step Down as President of The Hastings Center
(Garrison, NY) Thomas H. Murray, president and CEO of The Hastings Center, announced that he will step down in 2012 from his leadership role at the bioethics research institution. Murray,...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 03.24.11 Thomas H. Murray to Step Down as President of The Hastings Center”
PRESS RELEASE: 03.16.11 Debates about Diagnosing and Treating Emotional and Behavioral Disturbances in Children Are Unnecessarily Polarized
(Garrison, NY) Decisions about whether and how to diagnose children with emotional and behavioral disturbances, and whether and how to treat them, are sometimes not clear-cut. When decisions lie within...PRESS RELEASE 5-15-2019: National Endowment for the Humanities supports project on disability, technology, and flourishing
People with disabilities are experts at navigating a world that is not built for them – often by turning to technologies such as voice recognition devices and cochlear implants. But...MEDIA ADVISORY: 02.24.11 Erik Parens to Speak About Behavioral Genetics at Feb. 28 Meeting of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues
(Garrison, NY) Hastings Center Scholar Erik Parens, PhD, will speak about behavioral genetics to the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues on Monday, February 28. The meeting kicks off...PRESS RELEASE 3-25-2019: New in Ethics & Human Research, March-April 2019
Anticipatory Waivers of Consent for Pediatric Biobanking Jane A. Hartsock, Peter H. Schwartz, Amy C. Waltz, and Mary A. Ott Almost half of the approximately 900 biobanks operating in the...Read “PRESS RELEASE 3-25-2019: New in Ethics & Human Research, March-April 2019”
PRESS RELEASE: 01.24.11 Unrealistic Optimism Appears Common in Early Cancer Trials
(Garrison, NY) Can optimism be ethically problematic? Yes, according to a new study, which found unrealistic optimism prevalent among participants in early-phase cancer trials and suggested that it may compromise informed...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 01.24.11 Unrealistic Optimism Appears Common in Early Cancer Trials”
PRESS RELEASE 6-6-2019: Dementia and the Ethics of Choosing When to Die
Read “PRESS RELEASE 6-6-2019: Dementia and the Ethics of Choosing When to Die”
PRESS RELEASE: 05.04.11 Gilbert Omenn, Leading Cancer Researcher, Geneticist, and Policy Expert, Joins Hastings Center Board
(Garrison, NY) Gilbert S. Omenn, MD, PhD, a leading cancer and translational science researcher and science policy expert, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Hastings Center. Omenn...PRESS RELEASE: 01.11.11 Five Physicians Honored for Exemplary End-of-Life Care
(Garrison, NY) A pioneer in establishing palliative care as a medical specialty is one of the five American physicians being honored today for improving the care of patients near the...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 01.11.11 Five Physicians Honored for Exemplary End-of-Life Care”
A New Look for Hastings
Logos and Photos
JPEG | TIFF | EPS JPEG | TIFF | EPS Contact Nora Porter, Art Director portern@thehastingscenter.org 845-424-4040, ext. 225Looking for the Psychosocial Impacts of Genomic Information
Monday, February 26 and Tuesday, February 27, 2018 For the last quarter century, researchers have been asking whether genomic information might have negative psychosocial effects. Anxiety, depression, disrupted relationships, and heightened...Read “Looking for the Psychosocial Impacts of Genomic Information”
Bioethics Forum Essay
COVID: Collective of Voices in Distress
HASTINGS CENTER REPORT
Scarcity in the Covid-19 Pandemic
PRESS RELEASE: 11.30.10 Recommendations Issued on Controversial “Ashley” Procedure for Disabled Children
(Garrison, NY) Should parents be able to use medical means to restrict the growth of profoundly disabled children to make them easier to care for at home? A working group...PRESS RELEASE: 04.14.11 Too Much Information? Risk-benefit data does not always lead to informed decision-making
(Garrison, NY) Giving patients data about the risks and benefits of a medical intervention is not always helpful and may even lead them to irrational decisions, according to an article...PRESS RELEASE: 05.09.11 A Grim Dilemma: Treating the Tortured Prisoner
(Garrison, NY) Medical involvement with torture is prohibited by international law and professional associations, and yet sometimes it is the right thing for doctors to do, argue two bioethicists. Their...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 05.09.11 A Grim Dilemma: Treating the Tortured Prisoner”
New in the Hastings Center Report 52, no. 2
New in the Hastings Center Report: Architecture as medical intervention, industry salespeople in the OR, unconsented intimate medical exams, and more in the latest issue. The Bioethics of Built Space:...PRESS RELEASE: 08.04.11 Hastings Center Report Expands Reach through Wiley-Blackwell Partnership
(Garrison, NY) The Hastings Center is pleased to announce a new partnership with Wiley-Blackwell, the Scientific, Technical, Medical, and Scholarly (STMS) publishing business of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., to publish the Hastings...Professional Chaplains and Health Care Quality Improvement
Project launched in March 2007 Download Can We Measure Good Chaplaincy?, an essay set featured in Hastings Center Report (Nov-Dec 2008). Download Professional Chaplains and Health Care Quality Improvement, Summary of Activities...Read “Professional Chaplains and Health Care Quality Improvement”
PRESS RELEASE: 10.11.11 New Project Examines Medical Safety Net for Undocumented Patients
(Garrison, NY) The Hastings Center is exploring the ethical challenges that clinicians and organizations face when providing medical care to undocumented immigrants in the United States. The project is supported...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 10.11.11 New Project Examines Medical Safety Net for Undocumented Patients”
Hastings Center Announces New Award for Exemplary End-of-Life Care for Vulnerable and Underserved
The award is named in honor of Dr. Richard Payne, an internationally acclaimed leader in palliative care. At the time of his death, Dr. Payne was a Trustee of the...PRESS RELEASE: 10.04.11 Does MRI Pose More than Minimal Risk in Pediatric Research?
(Garrison, NY) Shedding light on a question that has baffled research ethics review boards, a new analysis of the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in pediatric clinical trials finds...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 10.04.11 Does MRI Pose More than Minimal Risk in Pediatric Research?”
PRESS RELEASE: 09.26.11 Is Gallows Humor in Medicine Wrong?
(Garrison, NY) Doctors and other medical professionals occasionally joke about their patients’ problems. Some of these jokes are clearly wrong, but some joking between medical professionals is not only ethical,...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 09.26.11 Is Gallows Humor in Medicine Wrong?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Disabusing the Disability Critique of the New York State Task Force Report on Ventilator Allocation
I am a member of the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law and helped write its 2015 guidelines on the allocation of ventilators during a public health emergency. The position outlined by the Task Force report has been a point of confusion in the media. I don't believe that the Task Force recommendations discriminate against people with disabilities.PRESS RELEASE: 08.09.11 Study Finds Cognitive Deficits More than Psychotic Symptoms Impair Decision-making Capacity in Individuals with Schizophrenia
(Garrison, NY) Concern about the capacity of individuals with schizophrenia to consent to clinical research studies has largely focused on impairment due to psychotic symptoms associated with the disorder. Less...PRESS RELEASE: 10-09-19 New Project: Wrestling with Genetics and Behavior: Risks, Potential Benefits, and Ethical Responsibility
PRESS RELEASE: 05.31.11 What Can We Do About Death? Reinventing the American Medical System
(Garrison, NY) In a feature article in The New Republic, Daniel Callahan and Sherwin Nuland propose a radical reinvention of the American medical system requiring new ways of thinking about living,...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 05.31.11 What Can We Do About Death? Reinventing the American Medical System”
PRESS RELEASE 1-29-2019: The Inaugural Issue of Ethics & Human Research, January – February 2019
Editor’s Note: Widening the Lens Karen J. Maschke The journal’s name change “provides an opportunity to identify new ethical, policy, and regulatory challenges that rapid developments in science, medicine, and...IRB Reprint Permissions
All requests for permission to reprint or otherwise reproduce articles that have appeared in IRB: Ethics & Human Research are handled by the Copyright Clearance Center. Get permissions for IRB: Ethics & Human Research. Authors who...PRESS RELEASE: 08.01.11 Social Challenges of Synthetic Biology Examined
(Garrison, NY) In the wake of last year’s creation of the first self-replicating cell with a synthetic genome – which was quickly followed by a request from President Barack Obama...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 08.01.11 Social Challenges of Synthetic Biology Examined”
MEDIA ADVISORY: 07.15.11 Hastings Center Scholar and Colleagues Examine Spiritual Care of Seriously Ill Children
(Garrison, NY) Spiritual care – the care of a patient as a whole person through support for how this person finds meaning in the experience of illness – is widely...PRESS RELEASE: 07.11.11 Summertime, Vacations at National Parks, Corn, Baseball – They’re All Connected in a New Book About the Meaning of Nature
(Garrison, NY) “All natural,” the way Mother Nature intended it,” “it’s just human nature,” “that’s not natural.” The idea of nature and what we call natural does a lot of...Bioethics Forum Essay
False Hope About Coronavirus Treatments
While patients can and do recover from coronavirus infections, there are currently no approved treatments that are known to work against COVID-19.PRESS RELEASE: 06.09.11 Physician participation in lethal injection executions should not be banned, argue two ethicists
(Garrison, NY) Should physicians be banned from assisting in a lethal injection execution, or lose professional certification for doing so? A recent ruling by the American Board of Anesthesiology will...PRESS RELEASE: 11.29.30 How We Die, Award-Winning Classic, Updated for 2010
(Garrison, NY) In a new edition of How We Die: Reflections on Life’s Final Chapter, Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., Hastings Center board member and Fellow, discusses the state of end-of-life care...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 11.29.30 How We Die, Award-Winning Classic, Updated for 2010”
PRESS RELEASE: 08.18.11 Wesleyan University President Michael Roth Joins Hastings Center Board
(Garrison, NY) Historian and author Michael S. Roth has been elected to the Board of Directors of The Hastings Center.Roth, who has served as president of Wesleyan University since 2007,...Bioethics Forum Essay
Controversy in the Hastings Center Report: Responding to an Article on Obesity
Nearly everyone agrees that obesity is a significant public health problem in the United States, and nearly everyone agrees that the public health responses to it so far have been...Read “Controversy in the Hastings Center Report: Responding to an Article on Obesity”
Press Release: New in the Hastings Center Report: Ethical Challenges of the Opioid Crisis
The nationwide surge in drug abuse predates the Covid-19 pandemic but has risen to new highs during it. Causes of the crisis–physician prescribing habits and societal problems like poverty and...Read “Press Release: New in the Hastings Center Report: Ethical Challenges of the Opioid Crisis”
Press Release: Dr. Anthony Fauci on Public Trust in Science. A Hastings Center Event
The Hastings Center will host Dr. Anthony Fauci in “Public Trust in Science,” the second in a Hastings Conversations discussion series, Securing Health in a Troubled Time. The nation’s top...Read “Press Release: Dr. Anthony Fauci on Public Trust in Science. A Hastings Center Event”
Hastings Center News
What Can Frankenstein Teach Us About Living in the Genetics Age?
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...Read “What Can Frankenstein Teach Us About Living in the Genetics Age?”
Hastings Center News
Health Equity Summit Recap
The Hastings Center and the Association of American Medical Colleges Center for Health Justice convened a two-day health equity summit called “Righting the Wrongs: Tackling Health Inequities” on January 19...PRESS RELEASE: 06.10.10 New Book Compares Health Care in New York, Paris, and London
(Garrison, NY) Why do other countries spend less on health care and yet achieve near-universal coverage and often better outcomes than the United States? This question has come up repeatedly...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 06.10.10 New Book Compares Health Care in New York, Paris, and London”
PRESS RELEASE: 05.28.10 Consent Forms for Research: Have They Improved in 25 Years?
(Garrison, NY) The consent forms that people sign before participating in research are widely considered difficult to understand and sometimes inaccurate. The lack of clarity was implicated in a high-profile...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 05.28.10 Consent Forms for Research: Have They Improved in 25 Years?”
Press Release: Navigating: On Disability, Technology, and Experiencing the World
Virtual public event on Tuesday, September 29, presented by The Hastings Center and supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities The Hastings Center will present the second in a...Read “Press Release: Navigating: On Disability, Technology, and Experiencing the World”
PRESS RELEASE 2-18-14: Hastings Center Announces Journalists Bootcamp on Covering End-of-Life Care
Debates about when life ends and treatment decision-making are regularly in the news – most recently with the California teenager and the pregnant woman in Texas declared brain dead. To...PRESS RELEASE: 05.19.10 Proposed Diagnostic Change Not Enough to Help Children Currently Diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder
(Garrison, NY) Shifting children from the controversial diagnosis of bipolar disorder to one that more accurately reflects their symptoms will not by itself decrease the rate of psychopharmacologic treatment and...Press Release HCR Nov-Dec 2020
New in the Hastings Center Report: Should Many Prescription Drugs Be Available Over the Counter? Appealing to patient autonomy, bioethicists argue for making oral contraceptives, HIV-prevention medicines, statins, and...For The Media
Please direct media queries to:Susan Gilbert or Mark Cardwellcommunications@thehastingscenter.org845-424-4040, ext. 244 or ext. 230 About the Hastings Center:The Hastings Center is a nonpartisan ethics research institution founded in 1969.More about...PRESS RELEASE: 04.14.10 Three Hastings Center Fellows Chosen for Obama’s Bioethics Commission; Chair Is Also a Fellow
(Garrison, NY) Hastings Center Fellows Anita Allen, Christine Grady, and Daniel Sulmasy were appointed to President Barack Obama’s Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, the White House announced. Amy...PRESS RELEASE: 04.01.10 Baseball season opener: athletes and ethicists look at fairness in sport
(Garrison,NY) Just in time for baseball’s opening day, a series of articles in the Hastings Center Report asks what constitutes fairness in elite sports and what it takes to stop cheating. New...PRESS RELEASE: 03.24.10 Fertility industry offers big money to recruit “desirable” egg donors at top universities
(Garrison, NY) Many egg donation agencies and private couples routinely exceed compensation recommendation limits for potential donors, a new study finds. From a sample of over 300 college newspapers, findings...PRESS RELEASE: 03.18.10 Broad Application of Bipolar Diagnosis in Children May Do More Harm than Good
(Garrison, NY) Troubled children diagnosed with bipolar disorder may fare better with a different diagnosis, according to researchers at The Hastings Center. The researchers support an emerging approach, which gives...PRESS RELEASE 12-9-13 Marketing Loans for Fertility Treatments Raises Ethical Concerns
An increase in the number of lenders specializing in loans for fertility treatments enables more people to afford the treatments, but it also raises ethical concerns, concludes a commentary in the Hastings...Read “PRESS RELEASE 12-9-13 Marketing Loans for Fertility Treatments Raises Ethical Concerns”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Chinese Bioethicists: Silencing Doctor Impeded Early Control of Coronavirus
The death of Dr Li Wenliang from COVID-19 is heartbreaking for our country and people. Dr. Li was reprimanded for messages he posted in a chat group warning fellow doctors about a mysterious infection. His death from coronavirus underscored gaps and deficiencies in our country’s health care system and system of governance.Read “Chinese Bioethicists: Silencing Doctor Impeded Early Control of Coronavirus”
PRESS RELEASE: 06.22.10 Implementing Comparative Effectiveness Research: Lessons from the Mammography Screening Controversy
(Garrison, NY) The firestorm that followed the November 2009 release of guidelines that would have reduced use of screening mammograms in women aged 40 to 49 highlights challenges for implementing...Press Release: New Project: Building an Ethics Framework for Big Data in Health Care
Big Data in health care is growing, and it is coming from an increasing number of sources, including electronic health records, patient monitors and physical activity trackers, and smartphone applications....Read “Press Release: New Project: Building an Ethics Framework for Big Data in Health Care”
MEDIA ADVISORY: 07.01.10 Greg Kaebnick to Speak on Synthetic Biology at First Meeting of The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues
(Garrison, NY) Synthetic biology is the topic of the first meeting of the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues, which will be held on July 8-9 in Washington,...PRESS RELEASE 4-25-2019: New in the Hastings Center Report, March-April 2019
Federal Right to Try: Where Is It Going? Kelly Folkers, Carolyn Chapman, and Barbara Redman Many patients with terminal or serious illness who have exhausted their treatment options want access...Read “PRESS RELEASE 4-25-2019: New in the Hastings Center Report, March-April 2019”
PRESS RELEASE: 11.11.10 Pharmaceutical Company Bioethics? Public Health Bioethics? Regenerative Medicine Bioethics?
(Garrison, NY) To celebrate 40 years of pioneering bioethics publication, the Hastings Center Report, the world’s first bioethics journal, looked to the future, asking young scholars to write about what the next...PRESS RELEASE: 11.10.10 Researchers See Ethical Dilemmas in Providing Care in Drug Detention Centers
(Garrison, NY) Organizations that seek to provide health care, food, and other services to people held in drug detention centers in developing countries often face ethical dilemmas: Are they doing...Bioethics Forum Essay
Do New York State’s Ventilator Allocation Guidelines Place Chronic Ventilator Users at Risk? Clarification Needed
There is a lack of clarity about the New York State Task Force guidelines on ventilator allocation. I believe disability rights concerns regarding the recommendations on chronic ventilator users are well-founded. This lack of clarity may cost lives.MEDIA ADVISORY: 10.07.10 Author Who Revealed Unethical Guatemala Syphilis Study Writes Follow-up for Bioethics Forum
(Garrison, NY) The researcher whose revelations about unethical U.S. studies on syphilis in Guatemala in the 1940’s lead to apologies from the Obama administration last week has written a commentary...Bioethics Forum Essay
Flattening the Curve, Then What?
PRESS RELEASE 1-04-2019: New in the Hastings Center Report
The Social Value Requirement in Research: From the Transactional to the Basic Structure Model of Stakeholder Obligations Danielle M. Wenner The Nuremberg Code and other research ethics guidelines stipulate that...Read “PRESS RELEASE 1-04-2019: New in the Hastings Center Report”
PRESS RELEASE: 09.16.10 With Growing U.S. Support for Personalized Medicine, a Look at Ethical Dilemmas
(Garrison, NY) As government support for personalized medicine grows, a consumer advocate, a patient, and bioethicists explore ethical controversies. Direct-to-consumer genetic tests, privacy, targeted cancer therapies, and Henrietta Lacks are...PRESS RELEASE: 09.14.10 Legal Analysis: The Health Insurance Mandate Is Constitutional
(Garrison, NY) The most politically charged feature of the health reform law is the mandate that legal residents have health insurance. Within weeks of the law’s passage, twenty states had...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 09.14.10 Legal Analysis: The Health Insurance Mandate Is Constitutional”
PRESS RELEASE 4-2-2018: Application Deadline Approaching: The Hastings Center Awards for Excellence in Journalism on Ethics and Reprogenetics
Submit an article to The Hastings Center Awards for Excellence in Journalism on Ethics and Reprogenetics. Three prizes will be given: a first prize of $6,000 and two runners-up of...PRESS RELEASE: 09.09.10 Study Finds Most Oregon Hospices do not Fully Participate in the Death with Dignity Act
(Garrison, NY) A survey in the latest issue of the Hastings Center Report found that most hospices in Oregon, the first state to legalize physician-assistance in dying, either do not participate in...PRESS RELEASE: 08.10.10 Clinical Trials: Study Suggests that Comprehension Is not Affected by Length or Complexity of Consent Forms or by Payment for Research Participation
(Garrison, NY) Although informed consent is an ethical cornerstone in research with humans, some studies suggests that volunteers often do not understand key aspects of the research in which they...PRESS RELEASE 08-16-2018: New in The Hastings Center Report, July-August 2018
On Avoiding Deep Dementia Norman L. Cantor To avoid prolonged dementia, the author has written an advanced directive to prohibit the provision of life-sustaining interventions, including hydration and nutrition, should...Read “PRESS RELEASE 08-16-2018: New in The Hastings Center Report, July-August 2018”
PRESS RELEASE 1-04-2019: What Does “Dead” Mean?
Should death be defined in strictly biological terms — as the body’s failure to maintain integrated functioning of respiration, blood circulation, and neurological activity? Should death be declared on the...PRESS RELEASE 6-1-2018: New in the Hastings Center Report, May-June 2018
Genetic Privacy, Disease Prevention, and the Principle of Rescue Madison K. Kilbride People who undergo genetic testing sometimes discover that they carry mutations that increase their risk of hereditary disease....Read “PRESS RELEASE 6-1-2018: New in the Hastings Center Report, May-June 2018”
PRESS RELEASE: 07.15.10 Bioethics Beach Reading, Summer 2010 Edition
(Garrison, NY) What if I were grown only so my organs could be harvested, and I had to care for others whose organs are being taken, too, while I wait for...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 07.15.10 Bioethics Beach Reading, Summer 2010 Edition”
PRESS RELEASE: 08.10.10 Clinical Trials Abroad: Making Non-English Language Consent Forms Readable
(Garrison, NY) The first study to look at simplified English-language consent forms translated into another language calls into question the common belief that a translated consent form meets readability standards....From Bioethics Briefings
Quality Improvement Methods in Health Care
Framing the Issue The American health care system has serious problems with quality and safety. One effective way to attack these problems is through the methods of quality improvement (QI)....From Bioethics Briefings
Research in Resource-Poor Countries
Framing the Issue In the 1990s, the term “the 10/90 gap” was used to refer to the gross inequity that only about 10% of global spending on health research was...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Research Benefits for Hypothetical HIV Vaccine Trials: The Views of Ugandans in the Rakai District
Collaborative, multinational clinical research is complicated by thorny ethical issues, especially when sponsored by developed world entities and conducted in the developing world. An overarching ethical concern in all research...PRESS RELEASE: Undocumented Immigrants and Access to Health Care in New York City
The Hastings Center and the New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC) today released a report,“Undocumented Immigrants and Access to Health Care in New York City: Identifying Fair, Effective, and Sustainable Local...Read “PRESS RELEASE: Undocumented Immigrants and Access to Health Care in New York City”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Public Citizen: The SUPPORT Study was Even Worse than We Thought
In his April 18 Bioethics Forum article, John Lantos criticized the findings of the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections that the conduct of the Surfactant,...Read “Public Citizen: The SUPPORT Study was Even Worse than We Thought”
SPECIAL EVENT
Re-Opening the Nation: What Values Should Guide Us?
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Ethical Review of Interpretive Research: Problems and Solutions
Since prior review and approval of human subject research became standard some thirty years ago, social scientists have voiced concern about the ways in which the rules and regulations that...Read “Ethical Review of Interpretive Research: Problems and Solutions”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Barriers to Change in the Informed Consent Process: A Systematic Literature Review
The informed consent process for clinical research is one that includes personal interactions, the informed consent document, and an individual’s decision about whether to participate in research. The intent is...Read “Barriers to Change in the Informed Consent Process: A Systematic Literature Review”
Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Welcomes 14 New Fellows
The Hastings Center is pleased to announce the election of 14 new Fellows.Bioethics Forum Essay
Newspaper Op-Eds Should Disclose Authors’ Industry Ties
Earlier this month, The Seattle Times published an op-ed by Samuel Browd, medical director of Seattle Children’s Sport Concussion Program, on the risks of brain injury in youth sports. Dr. Browd...Read “Newspaper Op-Eds Should Disclose Authors’ Industry Ties”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Certificates of Confidentiality and Informed Consent: Perspectives of IRB Chairs and Institutional Legal Counsel
Researchers conducting studies in which sensitive information about the participants is collected may apply to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a Certificate of Confidentiality to help safeguard participants’...Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Welcomes 24 New Fellows
The Hastings Center is pleased to announce the election of 24 new fellows. Hastings Center fellows are a group of more than 200 individuals of outstanding accomplishment whose work has...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Pediatric Magnetic Resonance Research and the Minimal-Risk Standard
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research combines powerful electromagnetic forces and sophisticated electronic technology to provide privileged glimpses into the human body. These features make the field a proving ground for...Read “Pediatric Magnetic Resonance Research and the Minimal-Risk Standard”
From Bioethics Briefings
Organ Transplantation
Framing the Issue Every day about 22 people in the United States die waiting for organ transplants. The deaths are especially tragic since many might be prevented if more organs...Our Team
Lin Tarrant
Lin Tarrant joined the Hastings Center in 2008. She has worked in the not-for-profit sector for over 25 years including Direct Mail Manager at Guiding Eyes for the Blind and...From Bioethics Briefings
Aging
Framing the Issue The aging of modern societies–a striking fruit of medical advances and improved economic and living standards–is one of the most important global challenges, affecting rich and poor...Our Team
Erik Parens
Erik Parens is a senior research scholar at The Hastings Center and Director of the Center’s Initiative in Bioethics and the Humanities. He has taught bioethics as an adjunct professor...From Bioethics Briefings
End-of-Life Care
Framing the Issue End-of-life care and its many dilemmas capture public attention when they make national news, often involving a family seeking a court order to remove life support from...From Bioethics Briefings
Sports Enhancement
Framing the Issue Spring in America brings flowers, sweet warm breezes, and the thwack of a bat striking a baseball. The Mitchell Report, an early Christmas present to baseball fans...From Bioethics Briefings
Stem Cells
Framing the Issue Stem cells are undifferentiated cells that have the capacity to renew themselves and to specialize into various cell types, such as blood, muscle, and nerve cells. Embryonic...From Bioethics Briefings
Torture: The Bioethics Perspective
Framing the Issue Torture occupies an odd position in that it is universally illegal and widely practiced. Despite many studies showing its inefficacy, more than half of the world’s nations...Bioethics Forum Essay
Bloomberg’s Health Legacy: What Inflames Consumer Passions in the Food Wars?
After the Hastings Center Report published my essay on Mayor Bloomberg’s health legacy — with its key ideas spread through the popular media (here and here) — vitriolic messages streamed...Read “Bloomberg’s Health Legacy: What Inflames Consumer Passions in the Food Wars?”
Universities of the Witwatersrand and Johannesburg
Giving a Voice to African Thought in Medical Research Ethics 3 – 5 December 2015 Boardroom, Phillip V Tobias Health Sciences Building,University of the Witwatersrand Corner of York and St...Bioethics Forum Essay
Bioethics, Nazi Analogies, and the Coronavirus Pandemic
The year 2020 will be remembered as the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. But the pandemic was not alone in creating fear and dismay and raising ethical questions. Think of the rise in antisemitism, police violence against Black people, protests against immigration, and rallies by groups espousing Nazi slogans and symbols. Hate crimes, including murder, are the highest in years, according to the most recent FBI report, and were particularly aimed at Jews and Hispanics. Asian-Americans have been targeted as carriers of the so-called “China virus.”Read “Bioethics, Nazi Analogies, and the Coronavirus Pandemic”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Continuing Ethics Review Practices by Canadian Research Ethics Boards
This study examined Canadian Research Ethics Board (REB) practices concerning continuing ethics review of approved studies. A mail-out questionnaire was used to elicit information from Canadian REB representatives about whether...Read “Continuing Ethics Review Practices by Canadian Research Ethics Boards”
Bioethics Forum Essay
A Responsible Death
As debates continue about the decisions people make about how to die, I wish to draw wider attention to the death of Paul Drier. There was little extraordinary about his death. He was a widower, had suffered from multiple health problems, and had been on kidney dialysis for 18 months. Considered to be too ill to qualify for a transplant, he decided to end dialysis. Two aspects of Mr. Drier’s death seem worth putting on record for bioethicists to remember.Bioethics Forum Essay
Committing to Fight Racism
We have reached a very sad, painful moment in the United States. It feels like a cascade of calamities, one compounding the next. An infectious disease pandemic that we cannot yet cure has precipitated an economic crisis. An episode of police brutality against a black man has added the name George Floyd to a long list of victims of unfair policing practices in black communities. Bioethicists have not been doing enough in our professional capacities to actively denounce or address the persistent problems of structural racism. We invite our fellow bioethics colleagues to join us in candid, uncomfortable conversations about what we can and should be doing differently.Bioethics Forum Essay
Bad Vibrations
In “The Rhetoric of Dehumanization: An Analysis of Medical Reports of the Tuskegee Syphilis Project,” Martha Solomon brilliantly demonstrates how the project’s researchers hid their work in plain sight. Specifically,...Bioethics Forum Essay
Diving Deeper into Amazon Alexa’s HIPAA Compliance
Amazon.com made waves in health care when it announced that its Alexa Skills Kit, a suite of tools for building voice programs, would be HIPAA compliant. Using the Alexa Skills Kit, companies could build voice experiences for Amazon Echo devices that communicate personal health information with patients. Alexa’s various roles in health care stand to confuse (or potentially exploit) users.Bioethics Forum Essay
Using the Pandemic as an Excuse to Limit Abortion
Several states, including Ohio, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, Iowa, and Oklahoma, declared abortion a nonessential service at some point during the pandemic, meaning that it was effectively banned until the crisis passed. Supporters of the policies maintain that abortion is an elective procedure whose medical resources are better off used in the fight against the pandemic. But abortion opponents have been taking advantage of the current circumstances to limit abortion access.Matching Gifts
Bioethics Forum Essay
Time for the American Anthropological Association to Apologize
Last week, the journal Human Nature published via open access an article I wrote following a year of historical research. That article, “Darkness’s Descent on the American Anthropological Association: A...Read “Time for the American Anthropological Association to Apologize”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Contemporary Circus Draws on Ethics to Support Diversity
Even though the circus exists in the same world as theater and movies, it has been largely exempt from public criticism, apart from accusations of animal cruelty. But under the broad rubric of “contemporary circus,” this familiar entertainment genre is distancing itself from its past and creating a new and vibrant art form. And underlying this transformation is an ethical commitment to social justice, inclusion, and equity.Read “Contemporary Circus Draws on Ethics to Support Diversity”
Bioethics Forum Essay
On Naming Names
No names will be named in this essay. Which I guess makes it philosophy. Technically I am trained to do philosophy. I got my masters and my Ph.D. in a...Bioethics Forum Essay
Addyi Rises Again
Addyi, a drug that made a splash when it was approved in the summer of 2015 as the first “female Viagra,” is back. Its rise, fall, and rise again is...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
A Study to Evaluate the Effect of Investigator Attendance on the Efficiency of IRB Review
Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) are challenged to review increasing volumes of proposed research studies while meeting high ethical and regulatory standards.1A growing literature has documented concerns about the IRB review...Read “A Study to Evaluate the Effect of Investigator Attendance on the Efficiency of IRB Review”
Bioethics Forum Essay
X Marks Evolution: The Benefits of the “Indeterminate Sex” Passport Designator
Australia passed legislation in September giving transgender and intersex passport holders the option to identify themselves with an X for “indeterminate sex.” Navi Pillay, the United Nation’s high commissioner for...Read “X Marks Evolution: The Benefits of the “Indeterminate Sex” Passport Designator”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Legal but Unethical: Who Works on That?
It’s hard to say what is most horrifying in Carl Elliott’s report in the current issue of Mother Jones of a young man who died caught up in a pharma...Bioethics Forum Essay
Medicine Needs a Declaration of Independence from Cosmetic Procedures
What is medicine for? I found this question on my mind recently, not only because I had been discussing it with a group of thoughtful medical students to whom I...Read “Medicine Needs a Declaration of Independence from Cosmetic Procedures”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Pink Boys with Puppy Dog Tails
In my e-mail in-box a few weeks ago, I received a polite message from a woman named Sarah Hoffman who was writing to ask why I was being such a...PRESS RELEASE: 12.07.10 Cognitively-Impaired Human Research Subjects Need Better Protection
(Garrison, NY) Practices for protecting human research subjects with Alzheimer’s disease and other conditions that make them incapable of giving informed consent are widely variable and in need of more concrete...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 12.07.10 Cognitively-Impaired Human Research Subjects Need Better Protection”
- The Hastings Center’s Visiting Scholar Program offers a special opportunity for undergraduates. The Hastings Center seeks undergraduate applicants, usually in their junior or senior year, with strong academic credentials and the...
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
OHRP Compliance Oversight Letters: An Update
In this article, we describe our review of 235 compliance oversight determination letters that the Office for Human Research Protections (OHRP) issued to 146 institutions between August 1, 2002, and...PRESS RELEASE: 10-15-15 New in the Hastings Center Report
Emotion and reason in the enhancement debate, questions about gene editing, and more in the September-October 2015 issue. Don’t Mind the Gap: Intuitions, Emotions, and Reasons in the Enhancement Debate Alberto...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 10-15-15 New in the Hastings Center Report”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
A Consent Form Template for Phase I Oncology Trials
Download Consent Form Template (Spanish) The two primary components of the consent process for research are a consent form and a discussion between the investigator and the potential research participant....Bioethics Forum Essay
Businesses, Guns, and Human Rights
The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., resulted in the deaths of 17 people. Tragically, from January 1 to March 21, 2018, there were 3,088...Bioethics Forum Essay
Health Workers as Pawns of Warfare
Last week, NPR reported a major humanitarian group’s decision to stop treating patients from detention centers in Misrata, Libya. According tothe report,“torture was so rampant that some detainees were brought...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Reformed Consent: Adapting to New Media and Research Participant Preferences
The principle of respect for persons clearly demands that investigators communicate with potential research participants in a way that fosters comprehension of the information relevant to deciding whether to enroll...Read “Reformed Consent: Adapting to New Media and Research Participant Preferences”
Transcript | Vaccine Access, Vaccine Hesitancy: Challenges to Herd Immunity
A HASTINGS CENTER CONVERSATION WITH RHEA BOYD, MAYA GOLDENBERG, AND MILDRED SOLOMON The Hastings Center hosted “Vaccine Access, Vaccine Hesitancy: Challenges to Herd Immunity,” an online discussion of the ethical issues related...Read “Transcript | Vaccine Access, Vaccine Hesitancy: Challenges to Herd Immunity”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Including Persons with Alzheimer Disease in Research on Comorbid Conditions
Alzheimer disease is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that affects 4.5 million people in the United States, with the number expected to rise dramatically over the next fifty years due to...Read “Including Persons with Alzheimer Disease in Research on Comorbid Conditions”
Media Advisory: Precaution and Governance of Emerging Technologies
Precautionary approaches to governance of emerging technology, which call for constraints on the use of technology whose potential harms and other outcomes are highly uncertain, are often criticized for reflecting...Read “Media Advisory: Precaution and Governance of Emerging Technologies”
Ethics & Human Research
Ethics & Human Research (formerly IRB: Ethics & Human Research) aims to foster critical analysis of issues in science and health care that have implications for human biomedical and behavioral...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Motivated by Money? The Impact of Financial Incentive for the Research Team on Study Recruitment
Biomedical research is a very competitive arena. Investigators not only compete for internal and external funding for their clinical trials, but also for healthy people or patients to enroll in...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...Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Organizes Symposium for International Journalism Conference: Ethical Debates on New Genetic Technologies
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...Our Team
Faith E. Fletcher
Faith Fletcher is an assistant professor at Baylor College of Medicine. She is currently co-chair of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities RACE Affinity Group, a national special interest...PRESS RELEASE: 07.18.11 New Grant Supports Hastings Work on Ethics of Medical Research with Animals
(Garrison, NY) The Esther A. and Joseph Klingenstein Fund awarded The Hastings Center a $159,000 grant to explore the ethical, scientific, and legal issues on using animals in medical research...MEDIA ADVISORY: 10-13-15 Hastings Center Informs NYC Plan for Immigrant Health Care Access
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a plan to improve health care access for immigrants in the nation’s largest city, incorporating the principal recommendation from The Hastings Center and the New...Read “MEDIA ADVISORY: 10-13-15 Hastings Center Informs NYC Plan for Immigrant Health Care Access”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Ideal vs. Real: Revisiting Contraceptive Guidelines
We read, with interest, the lead article in the September-October 2010 issue of IRB: Ethics & Human Research.1 We are grateful to Chris Kaposy and Françoise Baylis for keeping the important issue of the...Bioethics Case Studies
Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California In this case [17 Cal. 3d 425, 551 P.2d 334, 131 Cal. Rptr. 14 (Cal. 1976)] the Supreme Court of California held that...Having Conversations about Organ Donation
While 90 percent of participants in a 2005 Gallup poll indicated that they would donate an organ if asked, only 40 percent of Americans have registered to do so, according...Bioethics Forum Essay
“Beware the Ides of March” 2.0
The ancients looked to omens and portents to recognize signs of impending death. Today we do not rely on the ominous words of soothsayers, interpreting the entrails of chickens, or...MEDIA ADVISORY: 10.12.10 Seminar on Treating Mental Disorders in Poor and Vulnerable Children
Please join us for an October 15 seminar, Treating Mental Disorders in Poor and Vulnerable Children, co-sponsored by The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute, and Brooklyn Law School’s Center for Health,...Read “MEDIA ADVISORY: 10.12.10 Seminar on Treating Mental Disorders in Poor and Vulnerable Children”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Increasing Common Rule Protections: IRB Consensus, Black Box Warnings, and Risk in Equipoise
On July 26, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published proposed changes to the Common Rule, the federal regulation that governs much of the federally funded...Read “Increasing Common Rule Protections: IRB Consensus, Black Box Warnings, and Risk in Equipoise”
Vascular Biology 2015
October 18-22, 2015 Vascular Biology 2015 will deliver presentations in cutting edge research in cardiovascular biology. This unique cross-disciplinary meeting provides distinct perspectives and approaches to what are often common...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Public Comments on Proposed Regulatory Reforms That Would Impact Biospecimen Research: The Good, the Bad, and the Puzzling
In July 2011 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) published in theFederal Registeran Advance Notice of Proposed Rule Making (ANPRM) entitled “Human Subjects Research Protections: Enhancing Protections...Intensive Bioethics Course
April 11-15, 2016 This 5-day advanced bioethics course is specifically designed for people charged with resolving potentially complex ethical challenges with little ethics training. This unique course emphasizes learning-by-doing where...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Waivers and alterations to consent in pragmatic clinical trials: Respecting the principle of respect for persons
Is it ever ethical to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) without consent?1This surprising question is increasingly being asked2owing to great interest in RCTs that compare widely used “standard” treatments...Bioethics Forum Essay
Evaluating Recommendations to Increase Organ Donation
While the U.S. system of organ donation and transplantation is in a state of growth for the fifth year in a row, the call for new strategies to accelerate that...Read “Evaluating Recommendations to Increase Organ Donation”
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.From Bioethics Briefings
Biobanks: DNA and Research
Framing the Issue With recent advances in molecular biology, human biospecimens have become enormously valuable for medical researchers. Biospecimens such as blood, surgical tissue, saliva, and urine contain genetic material...From Bioethics Briefings
Neonatal Care
Framing the Issue Approximately 380,000 babies, or 9.6%, are born prematurely (before 37 weeks gestation) in the United States each year. This is a significant reduction since 2007, when the...Our Team
Thomas H. Murray
Thomas H. Murray was president of The Hastings Center from 1999 to 2012. He was formerly the director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics in the School of Medicine at...Our Team
Michaela Ekowo
Michaela Ekowo joined The Hastings Center in May 2021 as Grants Manager. Previously, she has worked in administration offices at universities across South Florida and City of New York. She...Our Team
Jodi Fernandes
Jodi Fernandes has been with The Hastings Center since 1998 in administrative support roles that have spanned various departments including research, development, and finance, in addition to having primary responsibilities...Bioethics Forum Essay
Daniel Callahan: In Memoriam
Our Team
Ryan Sauder
Ryan Sauder joined The Hastings Center in February 2020 to oversee and advance fundraising and collaborate on related priorities. Immediately prior to becoming Chief Advancement Officer for The Hastings Center,...Our Team
Nancy Berlinger
Nancy Berlinger is a Research Scholar at The Hastings Center, an independent bioethics research institute based in Garrison, NY. Her current research focuses on ethical and societal challenges arising from...Our Team
Julie Chibbaro
Julie Chibbaro is a long-time teacher, mentor, and editor. She is the author of three novels, and numerous short stories and articles. Her books have won the American Book Award, the...Our Team
Josephine Johnston
Josephine Johnston is an expert on the ethical, legal, and policy implications of biomedical technologies, particularly as used in human reproduction, psychiatry, genetics, and neuroscience. In addition to numerous scholarly publications, her...Our Team
Gregory E. Kaebnick
Gregory E. Kaebnick explores questions about the values at stake in developing and using biotechnologies and, particularly, in questions about the value given to nature and human nature. He is...Bioethics Forum Essay
Daniel Callahan – A Remembrance
Our Team
Karen J. Maschke
Karen Maschke has expertise on the ethical, regulatory and policy issues involving the development, assessment, and use of new biomedical technologies. She has worked on several NIH-funded studies and expert...Our Team
Rosemary Gibson
Rosemary Gibson writes and lectures about health care, health care reform, Medicare, and patient safety. She is a senior advisor at The Hastings Center. She led national health care quality...Our Team
Susan Gilbert
Susan Gilbert is the director of communications of The Hastings Center and editor of Hastings Bioethics Forum. Before joining The Hastings Center in 2007, she was an editorial consultant and...Our Team
Laura Haupt
Laura Haupt specialized in twentieth-century fiction from the United States and England and some of its former colonies. She joined The Hastings Center as its managing editor in July 2013.Our Team
Nora Porter
Nora Porter has been the Center’s Art Director for the past twenty years. She is responsible for the design of the Center’s publications, promotional and development materials, and website graphics....Our Team
Vicki Peyton
Our Team
Siofra Vizzi
Siofra Vizzi joined the Hastings Center in 2010 as the development assistant and became manager of individual giving and special events in 2016. She also serves as the in-house photographer...Our Team
Michael K. Gusmano
Michael Gusmano investigates health care equity in the U.S. and other countries. His research and publications have focused on health policy, aging, and comparative welfare state analysis. He is the...Our Team
Deborah Giordano
Our Team
Mark Cardwell
Mark Cardwell recently joined The Hastings Center to improve impact, engagement and communications. He was previously the Deputy Commissioner for External Affairs for New York City’s inspector general. Prior to...Our Team
Mildred Z. Solomon
Mildred Solomon has an international reputation for her research on, and advocacy for, wiser health care and science policy. In addition to her leadership role at The Hastings Center, she...Expert Contributor
Erika Blacksher, PhD
From Bioethics Briefings
Disaster Planning and Public Health
Framing the Issue Disasters happen. Coping with them and recovering and rebuilding afterward are nothing new. Systematic, evidence-based advance planning and preparedness are more novel, however, and seeing disasters as...Our Team
Liz Bowen
From Bioethics Briefings
Public Health Ethics and Law
Framing the Issue The role of public health is to assure the conditions needed to promote and protect people’s health. These conditions include various economic, social, and environmental factors...Our Team
Danielle Pacia
Our Team
Aashna Lal
Aashna Lal joined The Hastings Center in September 2021. She graduated from The University of Texas at Austin in 2021 with majors in Biology and Plan II Honors. During her...Our Team
Bethany Brumbaugh
Our Team
Margaret Matthews
Margaret Matthews joined The Hastings Center in July 2021. She graduated from Vassar College in 2020 with majors in neuroscience and science, technology, and society (STS) and a minor in...Our Team
Carol O’Reilly
From Bioethics Briefings
Environment, Ethics, and Human Health
Framing the Issue Many of the most challenging ethical questions of our time address interactions between human health and the environment: How can we balance protection for the environment with...Our Team
Carolyn P. Neuhaus
Carolyn P. Neuhaus explores philosophical and ethical questions that arise throughout biomedical research and medical practice, from the philosophical foundations of the use of animals in biomedical research to the development...Bioethics Forum Essay
Ethics at the Chocolate Factory
Two women are being trained for work on a factory assembly line. As products arrive on a conveyor belt, their task is to wrap each product and place it back...From Bioethics Briefings
Newborn Screening
Framing the Issue State newborn screening programs test nearly all infants born in the United States for selected inherited and congenital conditions that may cause disability or death. Screening is...From Bioethics Briefings
Conflict of Interest in Biomedical Research and Clinical Practice
Framing the Issue Conflict of interest is a broad term to describe situations where professional judgement risks being compromised by secondary interests. Research and clinical care both involve judgment about...Read “Conflict of Interest in Biomedical Research and Clinical Practice”
From Bioethics Briefings
Genomics, Behavior, and Social Outcomes
Framing the Issue Watch “Genomics, Human Behavior, and Social Outcomes: A Discussion for Journalists,” with writer Amy Harmon at the New York Times, Melinda Mills, scientist at Oxford, Erik Parens,...Expert Contributor
Arthur Caplan
Expert Contributor
Benedetto Vitiello, MD
In the Media
Hastings Scholars in the New Yorker
The New Yorker publishes a letter by Nancy Berlinger and Michael Gusmano about an article on a migrant caregiver and the global ethics questions raised.Expert Contributor
Nancy Neveloff Dubler, LLB
From Bioethics Briefings
Conscience Clauses, Health Care Providers, and Parents
Framing the Issue Conscientious objection in health care is the refusal of a health care professional to provide or participate in the delivery of a legal, medically appropriate health care...Read “Conscience Clauses, Health Care Providers, and Parents”
Expert Contributor
Eric G. Campbell, PhD
In the Media
What Does the New Religious Exemptions Law Mean for Your Health Care?
Hastings Center scholar Nancy Berlinger told the PBS NewsHour that conscience objections by health care providers, which were expanded under regulations finalized in early May by the Department of Health and Human Services, can lead to certain medical procedures becoming stigmatized, leading to worse treatment or deterring patients from seeking treatment at all.Read “What Does the New Religious Exemptions Law Mean for Your Health Care?”
Expert Contributor
Donald M. Berwick, MD
In the Media
CRISPR Craze — Albino Lizards Gene-Edited
Speaking to PBS's NOVA , Hastings Center research scholar Carolyn Neuhaus said scientists shouldn't keep using CRISPR gene editing technology on new species "just because it's there"In the Media
What Are Key Theories and Issues in Bioethics?
Josephine Johnston, The Hastings Center’s director of research, and Elizabeth Dietz, a project manager and research assistant, compiled essential readings in the field of bioethics for JSTOR Daily, including topics...Expert Contributor
Jennifer McGuirl
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Lynn Friss Feinberg, MSW
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Myra Glajchen, DSW
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Carol Levine
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Bruce Jennings
Bruce Jennings is a political scientist whose research spans a wide range of subjects, including environmental ethics, health policy, and end-of-life care. He is an adjunct associate professor at Vanderbilt...From Bioethics Briefings
Brain Injury: Neuroscience and Neuroethics
Framing the Issue The national conversation over Terri Schiavo illustrated how questions about severe brain injury became central to the past decade’s most convulsive bioethics debate. As is well appreciated...Expert Contributor
Cristina J. Kapustij
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Mark S. Frankel
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Robert M. Friedman, PhD
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Gerald L. Epstein, PhD
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Michele S. Garfinkel, PhD
From Bioethics Briefings
Law Enforcement and Genetic Data
Framing the Issue https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC8rd6onHts Watch “Law Enforcement and Genetic Data: A Discussion for Journalists” with writer Sarah Zhang at The Atlantic, Ellen Wright Clayton, an internationally recognized leader in the...
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