Bioethics Forum Essay
Challenging Evolution?
We have long had the ability, we humans, to work outside the bounds of evolution. Dairy cattle, maize, and all sorts of dog breeds attest to that. It is unlikely...Page
Ethics of Nature, Human Nature, and Biotechnology
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Nature, Human Nature, and Biotechnology Moral views about nature—claims that nature or a natural state of affairs has value—are important in contemporary...Bioethics Forum Essay
A Moratorium on Gene Editing?
An article in the New York Times last week suggests that the genetic engineering of humans is only just around the corner. A recently developed gene editing tool known as...Page
Ethics and Environment
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Hastings Center Bioethics BriefingThe issues that arise in environmental health ethics are complex, multifaceted, dynamic, and global in scope. Finding satisfactory solutions...Hastings Center News
Association of Health Care Journalists Meeting Features Hastings Center Experts
The Hastings Center teamed up with the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ) to create three sessions on gene editing for its annual meeting in Orlando on April 20. In...Read “Association of Health Care Journalists Meeting Features Hastings Center Experts”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Human Gene Editing Report: Moving Forward Incrementally
It’s the conversation that really interests me. The NASEM report is plop in the middle of a national and indeed a global inquiry into how genetic science can let us tweak the world—human beings, human nature more generally, other organisms, ecosystems, the biosphere at large. What are the terms of that inquiry?Read “Human Gene Editing Report: Moving Forward Incrementally”
Hastings Center News
Gregory Kaebnick on Responsible Use of Gene Drives
A National Academy of Sciences committee released a major report on June 8 on the responsible use of gene drives, a rapidly developing field of research that holds promise for...Page
Ethics and Enhancing Humans
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Enhancing Humans What counts as enhancement is not clear because what counts as normal is itself ambiguous. Enhancement technologies have the potential...Page
Responsible Use of Gene Drives: Hastings Center Research Scholar Available to Discuss Major New Report
A National Academy of Sciences committee released a report today on the responsible use of gene drives, a rapidly developing field of research that holds promise for addressing persistent problems,...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...From Bioethics Briefings
Nature, Human Nature, and Biotechnology
Framing the Issue From genetically modified foods to assisted reproduction to gene drives, an increasing number of social debates feature moral views about nature—claims, that is, that a naturally occurring...Page
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...Hastings Center News
Governance of Emerging Technology Conference Features Hastings Center Experts
Artificial intelligence, gene editing, synthetic biology – these are among the new technologies discussed at Governance of Emerging Technology 2017, organized by Arizona State University College of Law and cosponsored...Read “Governance of Emerging Technology Conference Features Hastings Center Experts”
News in Contect
A Moratorium on Gene Editing?
Leading biologists made front-page news last month by calling for a moratorium on the use of powerful new tools for editing the human genome. While these tools raise hopes of...Bioethics Forum Essay
He Jiankui’s Genetic Misadventure, Part 3: What Are the Major Ethical Issues?
In their single-minded venture of “producing” (shengchan, in their own word) the world’s first gene-edited babies, He Jiankui and his associates have posed numerous and daunting ethical challenges to China...Read “He Jiankui’s Genetic Misadventure, Part 3: What Are the Major Ethical Issues?”
Hastings Center News
Josephine Johnston Tackles Gene Editing in “Prestigious Speaker” Series
Using gene editing to modify genes responsible for devastating illnesses such as cystic fibrosis seems overwhelmingly desirable, but could there be unintended consequences? Might the ability to select for certain...Read “Josephine Johnston Tackles Gene Editing in “Prestigious Speaker” Series”
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Public Deliberation on Gene Editing in the Wild
Principal Investigators: Gregory Kaebnick, Michael Gusmano Co-Investigators: Karen Maschke, Carolyn Neuhaus, Mildred Solomon Funder: National Science Foundation Initiatives are being developed to use gene editing technologies to modify populations of...Bioethics Forum Essay
Altering Nature to Preserve It
Perhaps the biggest challenge in talking about something like de-extinction is simply being clear on what it is you’re really talking about. Emerging technologies can be surrounded with so much...News in Contect
Therapeutics or Eugenics? Next steps in Gene Editing
A landmark international meeting took place in Washington on December 1 – 3 in which scientists, ethicists, policymakers, and others discussed the promises and risks of using powerful new tools...Bioethics Forum Essay
He Jiankui’s Genetic Misadventure: Why Him? Why China?
The birth of gene-edited twin girls was announced by a young Chinese scientist He Jiankui through one of four self-made promotional videos in English on YouTube (a website officially banned...Read “He Jiankui’s Genetic Misadventure: Why Him? Why China?”
Hastings Center News
New Book: Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing
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.Read “New Book: Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing”
Hastings Center News
“Off Ramps Rather than Barricades” in Governance of Emerging Technologies
Hastings Center research scholar Gregory Kaebnick is the lead author of an article in the November 11 issue of the journal Science that discusses the benefits of precautionary approaches to...Read ““Off Ramps Rather than Barricades” in Governance of Emerging Technologies”
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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”
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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...Page
Science and Technology Ethics
Technology ethics: Technology ethics comprises values and ethical considerations that should guide regulation and oversight, protect privacy and confidentiality, and require responsible actions in the creation and use of technology....Page
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”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Moratorium on Human Genome Editing: Time to Get It Right
Last month, the journal Nature published a call for a global moratorium on heritable human genome editing. Despite criticism, notably from CRISPR pioneer Jennifer Doudna, the moratorium is just what's needed now.Read “Moratorium on Human Genome Editing: Time to Get It Right”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Could Alarm Over Genetic Manipulation Get in the Way of Environmental Conservation?
The American chestnut is basically defunct, unless science can rescue it. Genetic manipulation may be the answer.Read “Could Alarm Over Genetic Manipulation Get in the Way of Environmental Conservation?”
Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Genetics Symposium Draws Journalists from Around the World
Is there a parental obligation to create “better” babies? Now that scientists can genetically edit plants and animals for agricultural and other purposes, what can we learn from the longstanding...Read “Hastings Center Genetics Symposium Draws Journalists from Around the World”
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Books by Hastings Scholars
Research projects at the Center often lead to books. In addition, Center scholars write independently on a variety of topics. Here is a selection of books. Human Flourishing in an...News in Contect
Bioethics Newswatch 2016
Gene editing, end-of-life care, ethical oversight of research – these are just some of the many bioethics-related topics that Hastings Center scholars study, write about, and discuss with the press....Hastings Center News
Kaebnick Elected Hastings Center Fellow
Gregory E. Kaebnick, a senior research scholar at The Hastings Center and editor of the Hastings Center Report, was elected a Hastings Center Fellow on December 8, 2023. Hastings Center...Bioethics Forum Essay
Do We Have a Moral Obligation to Genetically Enhance our Children?
The Oxford philosopher Julian Savulescu, among others, has argued that prospective parents engaging in embryo selection using preimplantation genetic diagnosis not only may seek to have genetically enhanced children but...Read “Do We Have a Moral Obligation to Genetically Enhance our Children?”
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For The Media
Please direct media queries to:Susan Gilbert, communications directorgilberts@thehastingscenter.org845-424-4040, ext. 244 Hastings Center News:Read the News Archive About the Hastings Center:The Hastings Center is a nonpartisan ethics research institution founded in...Bioethics Forum Essay
Being at Two with Nature and Mosquitoes
When Woody Allen said he was “at two with nature,” perhaps he had in mind insects that sting or bite. Who can argue with that, and who hasn’t taken a...Page
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
Pursue Public Engagement, but Don’t Expect ‘Broad Societal Consensus’
Read “Pursue Public Engagement, but Don’t Expect ‘Broad Societal Consensus’”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Engineering Consensus in the Development of Genome Editing Policy
In the past few weeks media outlets have been reporting on the release of Human Genome Editing: Science, Ethics, and Governance from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine....Read “Engineering Consensus in the Development of Genome Editing Policy”
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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
The Americans with Disabilities Act at 30: A Cause for Celebration During Covid-19?
A central mandate of the ADA is to make the goods of society accessible to people with disabilities and overcome their segregation in civil society through reasonable accommodation that allows them to go to work, live with their neighbors, and avoid institutionalization. But let’s not delude ourselves with historic sentimentality as disability law is placed under tremendous stress by the pandemic.Read “The Americans with Disabilities Act at 30: A Cause for Celebration During Covid-19?”
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PRESS RELEASE: 1-27-14 Humans in Nature: The World as We Find It and The World as We Create It
People are increasingly concerned about the extent to which technology enables us to alter nature: causing the extinction of plants and animals, genetically modifying crops and livestock, using synthetic biology...Page
Humans in Nature: The World as We Find It and the World as We Create It
Gregory E. Kaebnick (Oxford University Press, 2013) Contemporary debates over issues as wide-ranging as the protection of wildernesses and endangered species, the spread of genetically modified organisms, the emergence of...Read “Humans in Nature: The World as We Find It and the World as We Create It”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Should We Edit the Human Germline? Is Consensus Possible or Even Desirable?
I started writing this on my way back to New York from the Second International Summit on Human Genome Editing, held in Hong Kong November 27 to 29, where the...Read “Should We Edit the Human Germline? Is Consensus Possible or Even Desirable?”
Hastings Center News
Watch The Hastings Center’s Symposium on Gene Editing at AAAS Annual Meeting
A symposium organized by The Hastings Center for the AAAS annual meeting took place on February 17. Click here to watch. “The Ethics of Gene Editing: Should Concerns Beyond Safety...Read “Watch The Hastings Center’s Symposium on Gene Editing at AAAS Annual Meeting”
Bioethics Forum Essay
The Nebulous Ethics of Human Germline Gene Editing
Should scientists pursue research that would enable prospective parents to edit the genes of their future children in ways that could be passed onto subsequent generations? Not for now, according...Page
Ethics and Public Health
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Public Health Ethics and Law Public health encompasses what society does to assure the conditions that are necessary for its members to...Hastings Center News
Hastings Project Addresses Profound Questions about Human Gene Editing
The Hastings Center has launched an international project that focuses on the social and ethical implications of using powerful gene editing methods on human germline cells (embryos, sperm, and eggs)....Read “Hastings Project Addresses Profound Questions about Human Gene Editing”
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Hastings Center to Address Profound Questions about Human Gene Editing
The Hastings Center has launched an international project that focuses on the social and ethical implications of using powerful gene editing methods on human germline cells (embryos, sperm, and eggs)....Read “Hastings Center to Address Profound Questions about Human Gene Editing”
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TRANSCRIPT: Unpacking Neglected Factors to Ensure Impact
February 7, 2023 Transcription by machine — may contain errors Elizabeth Lanphier Want to welcome you to today’s second installment of Bioethics with Bigger Impact. I’m Elizabeth Lanphier. I’m a coeditor of...Read “TRANSCRIPT: Unpacking Neglected Factors to Ensure Impact”
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...Bioethics Forum Essay
A Decade’s Worth of Gene-Environment Interaction Studies, in Hindsight
In the early 2000s, Avshalom Caspi, Terrie Moffitt, and their colleagues published two papers (here and here), which suggested that we could finally begin to tell rather simple but evidence-based stories about...Read “A Decade’s Worth of Gene-Environment Interaction Studies, in Hindsight”
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...Page
Genetic Ties and the Future of the Family
Project launched in July 2001 Lead Investigators:Mark Rothstein (of the Health Law and Policy Institute at the University of Louisville), Mary Anderlik Majumder (now of Baylor College of Medicine), Thomas H....Page
Ethics and Clinical Trials
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Clinical Trials Clinical trials are specifically designed to test the safety and efficacy of interventions in humans and are preceded by laboratory...Hastings Center News
What Does It Mean to Be Human?
World-renowned theologian Harvey G. Cox, Jr. came to The Hastings Center for a wide-ranging conversation about the impact of gene editing on humanity. Joined by Daniel Callahan, cofounder of The...Page
Gene Editing and Human Flourishing
Principal Investigators: Erik Parens and Josephine Johnston Co-Investigators: Gregory Kaebnick and Mildred Z. Solomon Funder: John Templeton Foundation This international project focuses on the potential social and ethical implications of using...Bioethics Forum Essay
When Might Human Germline Editing Be Justified?
Last month, an international commission convened to consider whether and how germline editing – changing the genes passed on to children and future generations -- should proceed. The discussions focused mainly on the safety risks of the technology, which, while important, are not the only issues to consider. Any conversation regarding germline editing must also honestly and thoroughly assess the potential benefits of the technology, which, for several reasons, are more limited than generally acknowledged.Bioethics Forum Essay
Transcending Borders in the Ethical Oversight of Human Genome Editing
The bioethics and legal communities must come together to find ways to move with the same ease of the scientific research community--to transcend the geopolitical borders and jurisdictional concerns that make international regulation so difficult.Read “Transcending Borders in the Ethical Oversight of Human Genome Editing”
Bioethics Forum Essay
From Gene-Edited Embryos to Covid: China Faces Regulatory and Ethical Challenges
Over the last two years, China has updated some regulations on human genetic engineering and assisted reproduction and established a national committee to guide and supervise bioethics nationwide. But there are legal gaps in some of the regulations and tension between competing values: the desire to encourage new research and to potentially inhibit it by imposing stricter ethics regulations.Read “From Gene-Edited Embryos to Covid: China Faces Regulatory and Ethical Challenges”
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Special Reports
Special Reports to the Hastings Center Report are one venue in which the Center publishes the results of its research projects. Reports may be single-authored or collections of essays prepared...Bioethics Forum Essay
ES Cells and iPS Cells: A Distinction with a Difference
Gregory Kaebnick recently suggested in Bioethics Forum that apparent differences between induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and embryos created by somatic cell nuclear transfer may not be all that relevant...Read “ES Cells and iPS Cells: A Distinction with a Difference”
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Human Flourishing in an Age of Gene Editing
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Project to Examine “Deliberate Extinction” of Species
October 4, 2023 – A new project at The Hastings Center will propose recommendations for deciding if especially dangerous species should be eradicated with gene editing technology. Candidate species could...Read “Project to Examine “Deliberate Extinction” of Species”
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 commentaries...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...Page
Looking 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”
Hastings Center News
International Conference Co-Organized by Hastings Examines the Ethics of Gene Editing
Following recent advances in gene editing technologies, including the first recorded use of CRISPR/Cas9 in human embryos in the United States, The Hastings Center cosponsored an international conference, “Genome Editing:...Read “International Conference Co-Organized by Hastings Examines the Ethics of Gene Editing”
Bioethics Forum Essay
He Jiankui’s Genetic Misadventure, Part 2: How Different Are Chinese and Western Bioethics?
When the world’s first research on editing the genes of human embryos by Chinese scientists was published in an international journal in 2015, a report in the New York Times...Read “He Jiankui’s Genetic Misadventure, Part 2: How Different Are Chinese and Western Bioethics?”
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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...Page
Ethical Issues in Synthetic Biology
Principal Investigators: Gregory Kaebnick, Thomas H. Murray, and Erik Parens Funder: The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Launched in 2009, when synthetic biology was a new technology advancing rapidly, this project explored raises ethical...Page
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...Page
PRESS RELEASE: 9/14/13 Synthetic Biology and Morality: New Book Explores Ethical Questions about Creating “Artificial Life”
Synthetic biology aims to design and build organisms to serve human ends, such as producing inexpensive biofuels and developing new kinds of medicines. But this new form of biotechnology also...Page
Neuroscience and Society
Neuroscience and Society is a three-year series of articles and essays on the ethical, legal, and social issues presented by emerging neuroscience. It is published open access in the Hastings...Page
Governance of Emerging Technologies: Aligning Policy Analysis with the Public’s Values
Edited by Gregory E. Kaebnick and Michael K. Gusmano Emerging biotechnologies hold great promise but could pose great risks. However, the benefits and costs are often difficult to anticipate and...Read “Governance of Emerging Technologies: Aligning Policy Analysis with the Public’s Values”
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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...Bioethics Forum Essay
Gene Drive Technology: Lessons of the Atomic Bomb
At the age of 15, in August 1945, I heard the radio announcement of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima. It left an indelible unsettled mark on my...Bioethics Forum Essay
Why Human Germline Editing Might Never Be Legal in the U.S.
What would it take for the first case of gene editing of a human embryo, egg, or sperm to proceed in the U.S.? Many legal and ethical hurdles involving clinical trials, for starters.Read “Why Human Germline Editing Might Never Be Legal in the U.S.”
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Ethics and Newborn Screening
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Newborn Screening Newborn screening programs test nearly all infants born in this country for selected inherited and congenital conditions that can cause...Hastings Center News
Is it Ethical to Genetically Edit Sports Animals?
Breeders have worked for centuries to produce animals, such as greyhounds or racehorses, with traits for peak sport performance. Today, gene editing technologies such as CRISPR could accomplish in one...Bioethics Forum Essay
Bruce Springsteen: The Latest Celebrity DWI
It was especially disappointing to read about Bruce Springsteen’s recent arrest for suspicion of driving while intoxicated (DWI). Here's hoping the famous rocker will use his arrest to refocus attention on a risky and dangerous behavior that is thoroughly preventable.Bioethics Forum Essay
Global Health Justice: Now Is the Time
The recognition of the social injustices surrounding the pandemic is an important opportunity to understand the longstanding links between health and social and global justice.Hastings Center News
Johnston Discusses Ethical Concerns about Human Gene Editing
Josephine Johnston, The Hastings Center’s director of research, discussed the science of human gene editing, the policy activity it has triggered, and the moral and ethical concerns that it raises...Read “Johnston Discusses Ethical Concerns about Human Gene Editing”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Chinese Bioethicists Respond to the Case of He Jiankui
A preliminary investigation by Guangdong Province in China of He Jiankui, the scientist who created the world’s first gene-edited babies, found that “He had intentionally dodged supervision, raised funds and...Read “Chinese Bioethicists Respond to the Case of He Jiankui”
Hastings Center News
Bioethics Workshop for Secondary School Teachers Examines the Ethics of Human Gene Editing
Today’s young people will inevitably grapple with decisions about emerging biotechnologies, such as whether new gene editing technologies should be used to choose the traits of their children or enhance...Read “Bioethics Workshop for Secondary School Teachers Examines the Ethics of Human Gene Editing”
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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,...Page
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...Hastings Center News
Natalie Kofler: What Role Should Humans Play in “Editing Nature”?
Natalie Kofler, a postdoctoral research scientist at Yale University, visited The Hastings Center earlier this summer to explore the ethical questions surrounding the use of gene editing technologies in the...Read “Natalie Kofler: What Role Should Humans Play in “Editing Nature”?”
News in Contect
Should Scientists Create a Synthetic Human Genome?
On June 2, a group of leading scientists announced their intention to build an entire human genome from scratch. While the fabricated genome would be inserted into cells in a...Page
Delivering in Another Tumultuous Year
In 2021, as the country scrambled to decide how to allocate the Covid-19 vaccine, Hastings Center research scholar Nancy Berlinger led a national team to produce detailed guidance on vaccine ethics....Hastings Center News
Project to Examine “Deliberate Extinction” of Species
A new project at The Hastings Center will propose recommendations for deciding if especially dangerous species should be eradicated with gene editing technology. Candidate species could include mosquitos that transmit...Read “Project to Examine “Deliberate Extinction” of Species”
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2021 Center Highlights
In 2021, as the country scrambled to decide how to allocate the Covid-19 vaccine, Hastings Center research scholar Nancy Berlinger led a national team to produce detailed guidance on vaccine...Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Scholar Participates in Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate on De-Extinction
Seated on a stage with a museum model of a dodo and a pair of mammoth tusks, a panel of experts debated what is exciting and what is frightening about...Read “Hastings Center Scholar Participates in Isaac Asimov Memorial Debate on De-Extinction”
Hastings Center News
Is it Ethical to Use Genetic “Evolutionary Rescue” for Conservation?
Hastings Center research scholar Gregory Kaebnick participated in a multidisciplinary workshop at the University of Montana in Missoula on May 25 – 26 to examine the potential for using genome...Read “Is it Ethical to Use Genetic “Evolutionary Rescue” for Conservation?”
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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...Hastings Center News
Erik Parens Addresses National Academies on Human Genetic Enhancement
What if gene editing technologies such as CRISPR could be used to safely and effectively “enhance” future generations – to make them, for example, better able to perform on IQ...Read “Erik Parens Addresses National Academies on Human Genetic Enhancement”
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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”
Hastings Center News
Responsible Science in a Perilous Time: Hastings and Union of Concerned Scientists Join Forces
Climate change, nuclear proliferation, and the advancement of gene editing and other transformative biotechnologies pose enormous global challenges. How can we promote responsible science, good governance, and opportunities for public...Page
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”
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Special Report: Governance of Emerging Technologies: Aligning Policy Analysis with the Public’s Values
A special report in the Hastings Center Report Edited by Gregory E. Kaebnick and Michael K. Gusmano Introduction Making Policies about Emerging Technologies, Gregory E. Kaebnick and Michael K. Gusmano...Page
Appeals to Nature in Debates about Biotechnology and the Environment
Principal Investigator: Gregory E. Kaebnick Funder: National Endowment for the Humanities Kaebnick led a comparative study of how ideas about nature are invoked in contemporary moral and policy debates about medical biotechnology, agricultural...Read “Appeals to Nature in Debates about Biotechnology and the Environment”
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Reprogenetics: A Blueprint for Meaningful Moral Debate and Responsible Public Policy
Project launched in July 2000 Lead Investigators: Lori Knowles and Erik Parens Funder: The Greenwall Foundation, with additional funding from The Overbrook Foundation Purpose Evaluate and compare regulatory approaches in the United States and...Read “Reprogenetics: A Blueprint for Meaningful Moral Debate and Responsible Public Policy”
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Synthetic Future: Can We Create What We Want Out of Synthetic Biology?
Editors: Gregory E. Kaebnick, Michael K. Gusmano, and Thomas H. Murray How should we think about synthetic biology—about the potential benefits and risks of these applications as well as the...Read “Synthetic Future: Can We Create What We Want Out of Synthetic Biology?”
DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS
Democracy in Crisis: Civic Learning and the Reconstruction of Common Purpose
Introduction: Civic Learning for a Democracy in Crisis By Bruce Jennings, Michael K. Gusmano, Gregory E. Kaebnick, Carolyn Neuhaus, and Mildred Z. Solomon This multiauthored report offers wide-ranging assessments of...Read “Democracy in Crisis: Civic Learning and the Reconstruction of Common Purpose”
Hastings Center News
Ethics and Pandemic Policies: Democracy in Crisis
Ethics guidance during the Covid-19 pandemic has been valuable in informing some health policies and practices, such as oversight of research and crisis standards of care. But it has been...Page
Recreating the Wild: De-Extinction, Technology, and the Ethics of Conservation
Edited by Gregory E. Kaebnick and Bruce Jennings Is extinction forever? In response to alarmingly high rates of biodiversity loss worldwide, some scientists have proposed using biotechnological tools like CRISPR-Cas9...Read “Recreating the Wild: De-Extinction, Technology, and the Ethics of Conservation”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Synthetic Biology: A Study in Reinvention
An article in the October issue of Discover Magazine has a great line from Drew Endy, a bioengineer at Stanford University who has become one of the foremost public figures in the field of...Hastings Center News
World Science Festival Features Hastings Scholars on Gene Editing
Where do we draw the line between safe and dangerous applications of CRISPR, the gene editing technology that allows us to make permanent, even heritable, changes to the genetic code?...Read “World Science Festival Features Hastings Scholars on Gene Editing”
Hastings Center News
New Project: Public Deliberation on Gene Editing in the Wild
With funding from the National Science Foundation, a new Hastings Center project will examine the rationale and challenges of public deliberation on the release of genetically modified insects, mammals, and...Read “New Project: Public Deliberation on Gene Editing in the Wild”
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TRANSCRIPT: Towards Navigating Danger and Promise Together — Editing the Human Genome
Transcript generated by machine and may contain errors Dani Pacia Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Hastings Center event toward navigating danger and Promise together editing the human genome. This discussion...Read “TRANSCRIPT: Towards Navigating Danger and Promise Together — Editing the Human Genome”
Hastings Center News
The Hastings Center Celebrates Outstanding Journalists
Three journalists received The Hastings Center Awards for Excellence in Journalism on Ethics and Reprogenetics. The awards were presented at an event in New York City on December 6 that...Read “The Hastings Center Celebrates Outstanding Journalists”
Bioethics Forum Essay
GM Mosquitoes: Risks and Emotions
For several years, a British company called Oxitec has been proposing a strategy for controlling a species of mosquito, Aedes aegypti, that humans have accidentally carried from Africa to other...Bioethics Forum Essay
Synthetic Chromosomes
A team of scientists announced this week that it had successfully created one of the sixteen chromosomes found in yeast cells, marking a meaningful step forward in that part of...Bioethics Forum Essay
Womb Gay
Reading an excerpt from the new book Sex and War has got me thinking about the Mormons and California’s Prop 8. Sex and War features a meditation on how biology...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Consent and Population Genomics: The Creation of Generic Tools
There has been an increase in the creation of population biobanks and large-scale genomic cohort studies over the last few years. These resources collect samples and associated data in an...Read “Consent and Population Genomics: The Creation of Generic Tools”
Our Team
Athmeya Jayaram
Athmeya Jayaram works at the intersection of political theory and technology ethics, particularly on how we can make legitimate and fair decisions on the design and use of AI and...Bioethics Forum Essay
Social-Change Games Can Help Us Understand the Public Health Choices We Face
Before there was the Covid-19 pandemic, there was Pandemic. This tabletop game, in which players collaborate to fight disease outbreaks, debuted in 2007. Expansions feature weaponized pathogens, historic pandemics, zoonotic diseases, and vaccine development races. Game mechanics modelled on pandemic vectors provide multiple narratives: battle, quest, detection, discovery. There is satisfaction in playing “against” disease–and winning. Real pandemic is not as tidy as a game. But can games support understanding about the societal challenges we now face? Yes.Read “Social-Change Games Can Help Us Understand the Public Health Choices We Face”
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”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Continuous Health Monitoring: Greater Self-Knowledge or TMI?
For millions of health-conscious Americans, digital technology has been a boon, providing increasingly sophisticated fitness trackers. Researchers speak excitedly about a new frontier of “continuous health monitoring,” with the potential to detect diseases and aliments in their incipient stages. It also raises a host of disturbing questions about health surveillance. Will these devices really empower us? Will they compromise us as autonomous individuals?Read “Continuous Health Monitoring: Greater Self-Knowledge or TMI?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
So You’re a Scholar Who Wants to Make Things Happen
Because for about the last decade I have been a medical humanist working to change the way physicians treat people born with socially-challenging bodies, I’m frequently asked about doing activism...Page
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”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Can Social Media Increase Transplant Donation and Save Lives?
While at the National Institutes of Health in 1967 and 1968, we were involved in the design and drafting of the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, in partnership with the Commissioners...Read “Can Social Media Increase Transplant Donation and Save Lives?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
The Genetics of Obesity: A New Narrative or the Same Old Story?
It seems to me a kind of magical thinking to assume that explaining the genetic causes of obesity will reduce stigma when that new explanation is lodged firmly within a broader project of treating, preventing, or curing fatness. Today, drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and now Zepbound are the favored medical solution.Read “The Genetics of Obesity: A New Narrative or the Same Old Story?”
Hastings Center News
Should Gene-Edited Mice Be Released to Control Lyme Disease?
Hastings Center research scholar Carolyn P. Neuhaus participated in a panel discussion on Martha’s Vineyard on July 12 to discuss a proposal to release genetically modified mice to curb the...Read “Should Gene-Edited Mice Be Released to Control Lyme Disease?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
How to Avoid a Genetic Arms Race
Breakthroughs in our ability to change the genes of organisms are generating novel capabilities for biological weapons, a form of warfare that has been largely abandoned for decades. Guidance from scientists and bioethicists is needed to avert the threat.Bioethics Forum Essay
Chinese Bioethicists: He Jiankui’s Crime is More than Illegal Medical Practice
Professionals and the public in China first learned of the jail sentence of He Jiankui from the report of Xinhua News Agency. No information, including any interpretation, was provided by the Court. But the reported words of the sentence are so ambiguous as to leave room for different interpretations. We believe that the public has the right to know more than Xinhua News Agency reported.Read “Chinese Bioethicists: He Jiankui’s Crime is More than Illegal Medical Practice”
Hastings Center News
Playing God: From Frankenstein to Gene Editing
What lessons does Frankenstein hold for us today, when powerful new technologies such as gene editing and artificial intelligence are bringing us closer than ever to playing God? That question...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...Hastings Center News
Watch the Livestream Tonight: Ethics of Technology Keynote Lecture by Hastings Center’s Josephine Johnston
The Hastings Center’s director of research Josephine Johnston will explore how parental responsibilities are challenged by new genetic technologies in the keynote address of the “Ethics of Technology,” a yearlong lecture series at Washington & Lee University that begins on September 26.Page
Science Policy and Values: Resources
How can we ensure that emerging technologies are used in ways that align with public values? Several projects at The Hastings Center have addressed this question. Public Deliberation about Gene...Hastings Center News
Documentary Series Premiere on Genetic Medicine Features Hastings Scholars
Hastings Center president Mildred Z. Solomon and director of research Josephine Johnston were featured speakers at the premiere screening of The Code, a series of three documentaries on the origins...Read “Documentary Series Premiere on Genetic Medicine Features Hastings Scholars”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Is Chinese Bioethics Ready to Move Forward from the CRISPR Baby Scandal?
The Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing is being held in London this week. Chinese biophysicist He Jiankui’s illegal experimentation with heritable human genome editing, announced at the Second International Summit in Hong Kong four years ago, will haunt some of the discussions. To what extent has the Chinese bioethics community addressed gaps exposed by the Crispr Baby scandal and prepared to prevent similar future scenarios?Read “Is Chinese Bioethics Ready to Move Forward from the CRISPR Baby Scandal?”
Hastings Center News
The Hastings Center Plans Genetics Workshop for Science Teachers
How can secondary school science teachers help their students think critically about the social and ethical implications of recent advances in gene editing? The Hastings Center is inviting these teachers...Read “The Hastings Center Plans Genetics Workshop for Science Teachers”
Bioethics Forum Essay
What Happened to Concerns About Human Enhancement?
Prominent science policy reports that set the stage for the recent Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing all raise questions about human enhancement. Enhancement concerns also consistently loom large...Page
Reprogenetics: Law, Policy, and Ethical Issues
Edited by Lori P. Knowles and Gregory E. Kaebnick (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007) From the cloning of Dolly the sheep a decade ago to more recent advances in embryonic...Hastings Center News
Scholars Elected Hastings Center Fellows
Five Hastings Center senior research scholars were elected Hastings Center fellows on December 8, 2023: Nancy Berlinger, Josephine Johnston, Gregory E. Kaebnick, Karen J. Maschke, and Erik Parens. Read about...HASTINGS CENTER NEWS
Neuroscience & Society Series
Series Editor: Gregory E. Kaebnick Funder: Dana Foundation The Hastings Center Report will launch a series of open-access articles and essays on the ethical, legal, and social implications of new...Hastings Center News
Journal Editors Issue Guidance on the Use of AI in Scholarly Publishing
Editors at seven scholarly journals published recommendations on the responsible use of generative artificial intelligence tools by authors, reviewers, and editors. The recommendations ban regarding generative AI as an author – but allow its use to generate text and illustrations. Gregory E. Kaebnick, editor of the Hastings Center Report, is lead author of the recommendations.Read “Journal Editors Issue Guidance on the Use of AI in Scholarly Publishing”
Hastings Center News
Does the Endangered Species Act Permit Deliberate Extinction of Harmful Species?
Does the Endangered Species Act, the landmark 50-year environmental law, protect dangerous invasive species from deliberate extinction using new genomic technologies? That question was the focus of a comment in...Read “Does the Endangered Species Act Permit Deliberate Extinction of Harmful Species?”
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Hastings Center Report
The Hastings Center Report explores the ethical, legal, and social issues in medicine, health care, public health, and the life sciences. Six issues of the pioneering bioethics journal are published...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,...Page
Synthetic Biology and Morality: Artificial Life and the Bounds of Nature
Edited by Gregory E. Kaebnick and Thomas H. Murray (MIT Press, 2013) Synthetic biology, which aims to design and build organisms that serve human needs, has potential applications that range...Read “Synthetic Biology and Morality: Artificial Life and the Bounds of Nature”
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Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Bioethical Issues
Edited by Gregory E. Kaebnick (McGraw-Hill, 2013) This volume features 20 pairs of brief and accessible essays that stake out contrasting positions on a wide range of issues, including the role...Page
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...Page
Bioethics and Racism
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Racism and Health Equity Racism threatens health equity by withholding resources people need for proper health based on morally arbitrary features like...Bioethics Forum Essay
Sacred versus Synthetic? Nature Preservationism and Biotechnology
One of the long-term contributions of Earth Day is that it offers a regular, semi-official reminder that a sense of the sacred is a vital part of environmentalism. The spirit...Read “Sacred versus Synthetic? Nature Preservationism and Biotechnology”
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 is the editor-in-chief of The Hastings Center’s journal Ethics...Page
What is the Challenge?
We now have the power to change the very nature of the human species and the planet itself. Through converging advances in the life sciences, physical sciences, and information technologies,...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"Our Team
Lisa Moses
Lisa Moses is a veterinarian and animal focused bioethicist. After nearly 30 years as a practicing veterinary specialist for the MSPCA Angell Animal Medical Center in Boston, Dr. Moses became...Bioethics Forum Essay
Fix the Planet, or Change the Creatures In It?
Possibly as many as half of the coral reefs that existed 100 years ago have been destroyed, sometimes by removing them, covering them up, or blowing them up, but mostly...Page
Ethics and Stem Cells
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Stem CellsStem cells hold great promise for treating degenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and diabetes, understanding genetic illnesses, and answering fundamental...Page
PRESS RELEASE: 05.20.10 Moral Issues Raised by Synthetic Biology Subject of Hastings Center Project
(Garrison NY) A Hastings Center workshop examining moral issues in synthetic biology completed its third meeting as the J. Craig Venter Group announced that it had created the first viable cell with...Bioethics Forum Essay
The Elephant from Heaven and the Chicken from Hell–or: Colossal Fantasies
I have always wanted to see a woolly mammoth. From the time I first read about them up until, well, a few moments ago, I’ve fantasized about going back in time to see a herd shoving its way through an Ice Age snowstorm. Alas, it cannot be, even if George Church and a new company, Colossus, bend heaven and earth to make it happen.Read “The Elephant from Heaven and the Chicken from Hell–or: Colossal Fantasies”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Gene Editing, “Cultural Harms,” and Oversight Mechanisms
Is it reasonable to hope that concerns about “cultural harms” can be integrated into oversight mechanisms for technologies like gene editing? That question was raised anew for me by the...Read “Gene Editing, “Cultural Harms,” and Oversight Mechanisms”
Bioethics Forum Essay
CRISPR in China: Why Did the Parents Give Consent?
The global scientific community has been unanimous in condemning Chinese scientist He Jiankui, who announced last week that he used the gene-editing technology called CRISPR to make permanent, heritable changes...Bioethics Forum Essay
Scientists Disagree About the Ethics and Governance of Human Germline Editing
Despite the appearance of agreement, scientists are not of the same mind about the ethics and governance of human germline editing. A careful review of public comments and published commentaries...Read “Scientists Disagree About the Ethics and Governance of Human Germline Editing”
Bioethics Forum Essay
The Only PhD Scientist in Congress Speaks About Truth, Politics, and Human Flourishing
At a time when facts are distorted, disregarded, and ignored in policy making and political discourse, the need in Washington for seekers and defenders of truth has perhaps never been...Read “The Only PhD Scientist in Congress Speaks About Truth, Politics, and Human Flourishing”
Hastings Center News
Hastings Scholar on Public Radio’s “Science Friday”: “Frankenstein” at 200
Frankenstein, published 200 years ago this month, asked what it means to be human. In the age of CRISPR and artificial intelligence, that question endures. On Public Radio International’s “Science...Read “Hastings Scholar on Public Radio’s “Science Friday”: “Frankenstein” at 200”
Hastings Center News
Breakthrough Cancer Treatment: Hastings Scholars Discuss Hope and Challenges in Health Affairs
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...Bioethics Forum Essay
Why Avoid the “M-Word” in Human Genome Editing?
It is a truism that good ethics begins with good facts. Here are some of the facts about the ethics and politics of heritable human genome editing from 2015 to 2019.Hastings Center News
Hastings Responds to Prison Sentence for Rogue Gene-Editing Researcher
Read “Hastings Responds to Prison Sentence for Rogue Gene-Editing Researcher”
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Gene Editing and Human Flourishing
During the summer of 2018, The Hastings Center hosted its inaugural summer bioethics workshop for secondary school science teachers. The aim of the program was to prepare teachers to incorporate...Page
Noninvasive Prenatal Testing Advisory Committee
Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Welcomes 14 New Fellows
The Hastings Center is pleased to announce the election of 14 new Fellows.Page
Solomon to Step Down as Hastings Center President
(JULY 18, 2022) – Hastings Center President Mildred Z. Solomon announced today that she plans to step down in June 2023, marking 11 years of leadership at the pioneering ethics...Hastings Center News
New Hastings Fellows Elected
The Hastings Center is pleased to announce the election of 18 new Fellows. Hastings Center Fellows are a group of individuals of outstanding accomplishment whose work has informed scholarship and/or public...Bioethics Forum Essay
Did Russia’s Most Influential Bioethicist Get a Coronavirus Vaccine?
Along with the announcement that his government had approved Sputnik V, the supposed Russian coronavirus vaccine, Vladimir Putin also indulged in a moment of paternal pride: Wanting to confirm his personal confidence in the vaccine, he mentioned that one of his daughters was among the early recipients. This raises a couple of intriguing questions: Which daughter was it? And why does it matter?Read “Did Russia’s Most Influential Bioethicist Get a Coronavirus Vaccine?”
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Ethics and Conflicts of Interest
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Conflicts of Interest in Biomedical Research and Clinical Practice Financial relationships can create conflicts of interest between researchers’ obligations to abide by...Page
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...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 is a Hastings Center fellow. He has...Page
Selected Past Projects
The Human Life Span Care Transitions in Aging Societies: Singapore Casebook, 2nd Edition Ethical Decision-Making for Newborn Genetic Screening Genetic Ties and the Future of the Family Hospice Access &...In the Media
Mildred Solomon: Guidance on Human Gene Editing Should Address More than Safety
Writing in Scientific American's blog, Hastings Center President Mildred Solomon called for new public forums and strategies for discussing the ethical implications of editing the human genome in ways that can be passed down to future generations.Read “Mildred Solomon: Guidance on Human Gene Editing Should Address More than Safety”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Use of Estimated Data Should Require Informed Consent
The Icelandic biotech firm deCODE Genetics has pioneered a means of determining an individual’s susceptibility to various medical conditions with 99 percent accuracy by gathering information about that person’s relatives,...Read “Use of Estimated Data Should Require Informed Consent”
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Public Events Series: The Art of Flourishing: Conversations on Disability
The Art of Flourishing: Conversations on Disability was a series of six public events held between 2019 and 2022 in which scholars, artists, writers, and thought leaders with disabilities reflected...Read “Public Events Series: The Art of Flourishing: Conversations on Disability”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Genetic Testing in Torts Litigation – Justice or Injustice?
Genetic testing to identify the susceptibility of individuals to developing specific disorders or to confirm diagnoses is becoming increasingly common in clinical settings, where it raises a string of ethical...Read “Genetic Testing in Torts Litigation – Justice or Injustice?”
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Sports and the Search for Fairness
Cheating evolves constantly. Many athletes have been banned from the Olympics and other major events for taking banned substances. Gene doping is on the horizon. Questions have arisen about which...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”
Hastings Center News
Parens Elected Hastings Center Fellow
Erik Parens, a senior research scholar at The Hastings Center, was elected a Hastings Center fellow on December 8, 2023. Hastings Center Fellows are a group of more than 200 individuals...Bioethics Forum Essay
Genetic Information Is Not Always Benign
Ethicists and others have been concerned that the disclosure of genetic information to patients might have negative consequences. The suspicion has been that negative effects, say, becoming depressed, are particularly...Page
Development of Recommendations and Policies for Genetic Variant Reclassification
Hastings Investigator: Erik Parens Principal Investigator: Paul Appelbaum, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Funder: National Institutes of Health As genomic sequence data are being produced...Read “Development of Recommendations and Policies for Genetic Variant Reclassification”
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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...Hastings Center News
Hastings President Addresses Need for Responsible Science and Public Engagement
Read “Hastings President Addresses Need for Responsible Science and Public Engagement”
Bioethics Forum Essay
A Trump Bioethics Commission?
The smoke and the Sturm und Drang haven’t cleared from the greatest upset since Harry Truman defeated Tom Dewey in 1948 but it’s still possible to read some tea leaves...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Paying Research Participants: The Outsized Influence of “Undue Influence”
Offers of payment to research participants, though quite common, persist as a source of ethical controversy. U.S. regulations governing human subjects research do not specifically address offers of payment; yet,...Read “Paying Research Participants: The Outsized Influence of “Undue Influence””
Hastings Center News
Hastings Scholar Examines the Financial Burden of Long-Term Care
Nearly 11 million Americans use long-term care for help with daily tasks such as bathing and preparing meals, and yet few have private long-term care insurance. Thus, most of the...Read “Hastings Scholar Examines the Financial Burden of Long-Term Care”
Bioethics Forum Essay
The Ethics of Treating the President
Concerns about the health status of sitting presidents of the United States can raise significant questions in medical ethics, notably regarding the scope of a president’s right to confidentiality and of the public’s need—or right—to know about the president’s health, the role and responsibilities of the president’s physician, and the appropriateness of offering unapproved treatments. These concerns are heightened during the global pandemic for which there is no cure or vaccine and limited information about treatments.Page
Sadler Scholars
The Hastings Center Sadler Scholars are a select group of doctoral students with research interests in bioethics who are from racial or ethnic groups underrepresented in disciplines relevant to bioethics....Bioethics Forum Essay
Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Rural Communities? Checking Our Assumptions
As access to vaccines increases, the popular press reports waning demand for vaccines in rural residents and points to vaccine hesitancy. But there may be other reasons why doses distributed to rural areas remain unclaimed.Read “Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Rural Communities? Checking Our Assumptions”
News in Contect
Calls for Greater Awareness of Treatment Costs
Health care providers have a moral obligation to disclose out-of-pocket costs before patients receive care, concludes an article by Alicia Hall in the May-June Hastings Center Report. While information about...Page
Directions
By Car The Hastings Center is located in Garrison, New York, on Route 9D which runs north-south along the east bank of the Hudson River. Center access is via Malcolm...Hastings Center News
What Makes a Good Life Late in Life? Nobel Prize Winner and Leading Bioethicist Offer Insights
Eric Kandel, winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine who has done groundbreaking work on the molecular mechanisms of memory, spoke at The Hastings Center on May...Bioethics Forum Essay
Involuntary Withdrawal: A Bridge Too Far?
Despite its intended use as a treatment of last resort, some patients can remain on ECMO for weeks or months. And some are awake, alert, and capable of medical decision-making. RD was one such patient.Bioethics Forum Essay
Clicking ‘Accept’ Is Not Informed Consent
A recent Science article published the results of an experiment conducted on 20 million LinkedIn users over five years involving the “People You May Know” algorithm. None of these people knew they were part of an experiment, nor did they consent to participate.Bioethics Forum Essay
Working Around the System: Vaccine Navigators and Vaccine Equity
Vaccine navigators have emerged as a response to the complexity of mass vaccination for Covid-19.Read “Working Around the System: Vaccine Navigators and Vaccine Equity”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Charlie Gard, Compassionate Use, and Single-Payer Health Care
The case of Charlie Gard continued to unfold this week as Charlie’s parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, withdrew their appeal for permission to bring him to the United States...Read “Charlie Gard, Compassionate Use, and Single-Payer Health Care”
Bioethics Forum Essay
This Wasn’t the Plan: A Family Caregiver’s Recommended Readings from 2023
Work and life overlapped significantly for me in 2023. The timeframe for the latest project in the Bioethics for Aging Societies portfolio—a Greenwall Foundation-funded analysis of ways to support aging...Read “This Wasn’t the Plan: A Family Caregiver’s Recommended Readings from 2023”
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.IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Understanding, Therapeutic Misconceptions and Perceptions, and Enrollment Decision-Making: A Pediatric Preventive Malaria Trial in Rural Tanzania
This study entailed conducting extensive qualitative interviews of mothers who had been invited to have their infants participate in the Kilimanjaro Intermittent Preventive Treatment of Malaria in Infants (Kili IPTi)...Bioethics Forum Essay
Imperfect Solutions to Driverless Car Dilemmas
Three rules for driverless vehicles were announced by the German Transport Minister, Alexander Dobrindt, in a September 8th interview with Wirtschafts Woche. In English translation the rules are: (1) “It...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?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Mark Cuban’s Innovative Pharmacy: A Band-Aid on Drug Prices
Billionaire Mark Cuban and physician Alex Oshmyansky recently launched the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company (MCCPDC), an online pharmacy that sells generic prescription medicines at significantly lower prices than other sources. But the acclaim for the pharmacy may eclipse attention to the longstanding structural problems of the pharmaceutical industry and MCCPDC’s role in it.Read “Mark Cuban’s Innovative Pharmacy: A Band-Aid on Drug Prices”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Before We Turn to Digital Contact Tracing for Covid, Remember Surveillance in the Sixties
Is it unrealistic to believe that phone apps for digital Covid contact tracing can be designed and regulated in ways that prevent the information they collect from being misused? It's worth remembering surveillance of Vietnam War protesters and Martin Luther King Jr.Read “Before We Turn to Digital Contact Tracing for Covid, Remember Surveillance in the Sixties”
Bioethics Forum Essay
The Hastings Center at 50: Looking Back and Ahead
This year, The Hastings Center will celebrate its 50th anniversary. The Center was first located on the second floor of my house in Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., with some overflow paperwork stored...From Bioethics Briefings
Climate Change
Framing the Issue No issue demands greater care in balancing benefits and risks than responding to the threat of global climate change. Data indicate that global surface temperatures have risen...Page
Are Workarounds Ethical in Health Care Systems?
“There is more than one ‘clean hands’ problem in health care work,” writes Nancy Berlinger, a Hastings Center research scholar and a specialist in health care ethics, at the opening...Page
Access to Therapeutic and Palliative Drugs in the Context of Covid-19: Justice and the Relief of Suffering
Bioethics Forum Essay
Should Covid Vaccination Schedules Deviate from the Status Quo–as a Last Resort?
Last month, with concerns over the supply and coordinated administration of coronavirus vaccines escalating, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conceded that “any available mRNA COVID-19 vaccine” may be used to complete vaccination in “exceptional situations” preventing multi-dose manufacturer matching. While presented solely as a last resort, this guidance reflects a dilemma currently sweeping across the medical and health policy worlds: given limited supply, should vaccination efforts—still only authorized for emergency use in this country—deviate from evidence-driven, studied regimens to maximize individuals reached?Read “Should Covid Vaccination Schedules Deviate from the Status Quo–as a Last Resort?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
What I Learned from Dan Callahan About Bioethics, Writing, and Leadership
Read “What I Learned from Dan Callahan About Bioethics, Writing, and Leadership”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Proposal for Revising the Uniform Determination of Death Act
We believe that the concept of brain death, though flawed in its present application, can be preserved and promoted as a pathway to organ donation, but only after particular changes are made in the medical criteria for its diagnosis.Read “Proposal for Revising the Uniform Determination of Death Act”
Bioethics Forum Essay
The VA Crisis is Fundamentally an Ethics Crisis
The crisis and failure of caregiving that have engulfed the Veterans Health Administration cannot be solved with increased resources or even by hiring more doctors and nurses. Additional resources are...Bioethics Forum Essay
Will Gaylin’s Wit, Wisdom, and Kindness
I’ve had the privilege of knowing more than a few extraordinarily brilliant people from whose mouths seemed to spill spontaneous gems of polished prose. None surpassed Will. For those of us who must struggle in our writing to convey with clarity the complicated ideas we are driven to share, Will’s gift for off-the-cuff eloquence was awe-inspiring.Bioethics Forum Essay
I Was Never “Just” a Visitor
Caregivers are not visitors. Hospital policies that restrict visits from family caregivers can harm patients.Bioethics Forum Essay
Lavish Dwarf Entertainment
A dwarf walks into a bar. I was searching for a funny anecdote that would begin with that sentence when I ran into Danny Black, a dwarf who has walked...Page
TRANSCRIPT: Can AI Improve Healthcare for Everyone?
September 13, 2023 Transcript automatically generated and may contain errors Briana Lopez-Patino: Hey? Hello! Welcome! Just wanted to remind you all that the audience is not audible or visible. But...Bioethics Forum Essay
Covid is Surging. Most Young Children Are Still Unvaccinated
Children are returning to classrooms amid another wave of Covid cases, but some public health leaders have leaned into the message that “most of us” can ignore the continued presence of Covid by taking just “a few basic steps,” such as staying up to date with vaccinations. “Most of us,” however, does not include families with young babies, among other groups for whom these steps are unavailable or insufficient.Read “Covid is Surging. Most Young Children Are Still Unvaccinated”
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TRANSCRIPT: Should We Change “Chimeric” Human-Animal Research?
Transcript generated by machine and may contain errors Dani Paci Hi, all. Thank you for attending our webinar, Should We Change Chimeric Human Animal Research today. You will not be...Read “TRANSCRIPT: Should We Change “Chimeric” Human-Animal Research?”
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The Roots of Bioethics
Daniel Callahan (Oxford University Press, 2012) Daniel Callahan, whose cofounding of The Hastings Center in 1969 was one of the most important milestones in the history of bioethics, has written...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...Bioethics Forum Essay
Revising the Legal Standard for Determining Death
In recent years, court cases and scholarly articles have increasingly highlighted discrepancies between the legal definition of death in the United States and the medical diagnostic standards for determining brain death. It has become clear to many that the 40-year-old Uniform Determination of Death Act, the legal standard, should be updated.Bioethics Forum Essay
Should Clinicians Ask Hospitalized Covid Patients Why They Aren’t Vaccinated?
The role of doctors, nurses and other clinicians is to treat patients without passing judgment and to fulfill their fiduciary duty. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has muddled these obligations.Read “Should Clinicians Ask Hospitalized Covid Patients Why They Aren’t Vaccinated?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
What Role Should Bioethics Play in Global Health?
I appreciate Dr. Benatar’s essay on the role of bioethics in confronting the challenges of global health inequities. His article aptly catalogues the contributing factors–both specific to health and otherwise–that weigh heavily...Bioethics Forum Essay
Revising the Uniform Determination of Death Act: Response to Miller and Nair-Collins
To address recent lawsuits that question whether the persistent of hormonal functions is consistent with death by neurologic criteria (such as the case of Jahi McMath), we proposed specific mention in a UDDA that loss of hormonal functions is not required for declaration of death by neurologic criteria.Read “Revising the Uniform Determination of Death Act: Response to Miller and Nair-Collins”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Caring for My First Neo-Nazi Patient
How could I, the grandchild of four Holocaust survivors, be obligated to provide not just satisfactory, but exceptional care to such a morally repugnant character?Page
Transcript | Re-Opening the Nation: What Values Should Guide Us?
Read “Transcript | Re-Opening the Nation: What Values Should Guide Us?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Electronic Health Records: Balancing Progress and Privacy
Regardless of the fate of the Affordable Care Act, it has set in motion a drive toward greater use of information technology, particularly with regard to electronic health records (EHRs)....Read “Electronic Health Records: Balancing Progress and Privacy”
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Transcript: Critical Moment in Bioethics
This transcript automatically generated by machine and may contain errors Dani Pacia (she/her): hi everyone on behalf of the Hastings Center welcome to a critical moment in bioethics a webinar...Bioethics Forum Essay
We Should Be Concerned About Athletes Having to ‘Dope Down’
The Court of Arbitration for Sport has decided that female athletes with atypically high levels of testosterone must take testosterone-lowering medication in order to compete in certain events. I'm troubled by the precedent this sets.Read “We Should Be Concerned About Athletes Having to ‘Dope Down’”
Bioethics Forum Essay
“Doing Bioethics” in Pakistan
In my seven years as head of the Center of Biomedical Ethics and Culture (CBEC) at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) in Karachi I am often asked...Hastings Center News
Should Patients Be Considered Consumers? Hastings Scholars Say, No.
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 “Should Patients Be Considered Consumers? Hastings Scholars Say, No.”
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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?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
A Single-Payer Bubble?
In an earlier piece, “Trumping Drug Costs,” I looked at out-of-pocket costs as the pivotal issue with drugs. They can be a particularly heavy burden on the elderly, taking money...Bioethics Forum Essay
Why Shame Won’t Stop Obesity
I am still in medical school, but today I sigh the frustrated, disapproving sigh of a fully trained doctor. “You know,” I scold the middle-aged man in front of me,...Bioethics Forum Essay
The Hazards of Fast Science
A recent editorial in Nature lauds the U.S. government for its efforts to promote open communication between government scientists and journalists, but it condemns the Canadian government for its opposing efforts to...Hastings Center News
New Book by Hastings Cofounder Daniel Callahan
In his new book, Daniel Callahan, cofounder and President Emeritus of The Hastings Center, takes on five global crises: climate change, food shortages, water shortages and quality, chronic illness and...Page
The Five Horsemen of the Modern World
Global warming, food shortages, water shortages and quality, chronic illness and obesity – these worldwide crises share striking similarities: each is getting worse, despite extensive and concerted efforts to control...Page
TRANSCRIPT: Anti-Black Racism, Health & Health Care
This transcript was generated by computer and may contain errors. Aashna Lal, The Hastings Center Thank you all for joining us today. Welcome to anti-black racism, health and health care....Bioethics Forum Essay
The Drug that Cried “Feminism”
Branded as “The Little Pink Pill” and “Female Viagra,” flibanserin, Sprout Pharmaceuticals’ only drug, was recently resubmitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval for hypoactive sexual desire disorder...Bioethics Forum Essay
Advancing Maternal Health Equity with Data Transparency: The Case of Texas
Texas has delayed the release of the full report of the most up-to-date data on maternal health, further threatening the health of marginalized women, children, and families.Read “Advancing Maternal Health Equity with Data Transparency: The Case of Texas”
In the Media
Hastings Scholar on Jail Sentence for Rogue Gene Editing Researcher
He Jiankui, the Chinese scientists who created the world's first gene-edited babies, was sentenced to three years in prison and fined $430,000. Josephine Johnston, Hastings director of research, responds, asking if the U.S. would criminally prosecute a rogue gene-editing researcher.Read “Hastings Scholar on Jail Sentence for Rogue Gene Editing Researcher”
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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 sciences, and...Page
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...Bioethics Forum Essay
OHRP and Public Citizen Are Wrong about Neonatal Research on Oxygen Therapy
On March 7, 2013, the federal Office of Human Research Protections notified the principal investigator of the Surfactant, Positive Pressure, Oxygenation Randomized Trial (SUPPORT) that “the conduct of this study...Read “OHRP and Public Citizen Are Wrong about Neonatal Research on Oxygen Therapy”
YEAR IN REVIEW
2023 – A Year of Transformation
This year was full of transformations—celebration of past accomplishments and building toward the future. The Hastings Center had a changing of the guard, welcoming Vardit Ravitsky as our new president...Page
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at The Hastings Center
Table of contents: Introduction The Hastings Center is committed to the long-term work of ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion in our scholarship, in the field of bioethics, and in the...Read “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at The Hastings Center”
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The Role of Values in Impact Assessment
Principal Investigator: Gregory Kaebnick Hastings Investigators: Michael Gusmano and Karen Maschke Funder: National Science Foundation This project contributes to discussion of a problem in the governance of emerging technologies: what governance tools...Page
Contact Us
21 Malcolm Gordon RoadGarrison NY 10524-4125Phone: (845) 424-4040Fax: (845) 424-4545 Ryan SauderChief Strategy and Advancement OfficerPhone: (845) 424-4040, ext. 257Email: sauderr@thehastingscenter.org Siofra VizziManager of Individual Giving and Special EventsPhone: (845)...Hastings Center News
Neuroscience and Society Series: Aligning Science with the Public’s Values
Research that involves implanting devices into the brains of human volunteers creates a special moral obligation that extends beyond the trial period—an obligation that researchers, device manufacturers, and funders owe...Read “Neuroscience and Society Series: Aligning Science with the Public’s Values”
Hastings Center News
Rebuilding Trust in Health Care and Science
While confidence in many institutions has been declining for decades, the Covid-19 pandemic exposed the breakdown in trust in health care and science. A new Hastings Center special report on...In the Media
Hastings Scholars: To Convince Parents to Vaccinate Their Children, Engage With Them About Their Values
Getting the facts about vaccines right is not the most important part of the effort to sway the minds of those unconvinced, write Hastings Center research scholars Gregory E. Kaebnick and Michael Gusmano in Slate. Convincing people to vaccinate their children requires engaging with them about their values.Bioethics Forum Essay
Masks, Values, and a Lesson for Democracy?
As mask mandates are rolled back and friends and neighbors debate the risks and benefits of masks and the merits or permissibility of mandating their use, we can catch a glimpse of the considerable extent to which values depend heavily on something other than pure reason. It’s a bit disappointing, perhaps. But it might be a useful lesson for democracy.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”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Rationality as Understood by a Neanderthal
The new indie movie William explores the question, What would it be like if a Neanderthal were born and raised in a modern, industrialized society today?Page
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...Page
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...Hastings Center News
New Hastings Center Project: Public Deliberation for a Democracy in Crisis
Technologies are transforming the planet and its inhabitants, human and nonhuman, calling out for assessment and wise decision-making. Yet trust in science is eroding and polarization deeply threatens our ability...Read “New Hastings Center Project: Public Deliberation for a Democracy in Crisis”
Hastings Center News
Neuroscience and Society Series to Launch
The Hastings Center Report will launch a series of open-access articles and essays on the ethical, legal, and social implications of new findings in neuroscience. The series, supported by the...In the Media
Safeguarding U.S. Food Crops or Developing Bioweapons?
A Defense Department research program could release millions of insects to disperse viruses that have been genetically modified to cause genetic changes in food U.S. crops. Hastings Center research scholar...Read “Safeguarding U.S. Food Crops or Developing Bioweapons?”
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SUPPORTING INFORMATION
Mark Schlesinger and Rachel Grob, “When Mistakes Multiply: How Inadequate Responses to Medical Mishaps Erode Trust in American Medicine,” in “Time to Rebuild: Essays on Trust in Health Care andScience,”...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...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,...Page
Control and Responsible Innovation in the Development of Autonomous Machines
Principal investigator: Wendell Wallach Hastings investigator: Gregory E. Kaebnick Funder: Future of Life Institute As ever more sophisticated and autonomous computer networks and robots enter the commerce of daily life,...Read “Control and Responsible Innovation in the Development of Autonomous Machines”
Our Team
Laura Haupt
Laura Haupt, with Gregory Kaebnick, edits the Hastings Center Report. She is also a consulting editor for Ethics & Human Research. From July 2013 until early January 2024, she was...Page
Staff
Advancement Ryan Sauder, Chief Strategy and Advancement Officer Susan Gilbert, Director of Communications Julie Chibbaro, Digital Media Manager Siofra Vizzi, Manager of Individual Giving and Special Events Editorial Gregory E....Page
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...Bioethics Forum Essay
Nature Isn’t What It Used To Be
Is the end in sight for wilderness? A recent opinion piece in the New York Times, by the science journalist Christopher Solomon, says it is. “There’s a heresy echoing through America’s woods and...Hastings Center News
In the Media: The Hastings Center Responds to Covid-19
Hastings Center research scholars have been talking with the press and writing on ethical issues raised by the coronavirus pandemic. Here is a selected roundup. Check back for updates.Read “In the Media: The Hastings Center Responds to Covid-19”
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The Ethics of Deliberate Extinction
Principal Investigators: Gregory E. Kaebnick, James Collins Co-Investigators: Athmeya Jayaram Funder: National Science Foundation Genome editing provides new tools for controlling wild organisms–maybe by suppressing or eradicating populations, and...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...Page
Genetic Ties and the Future of the Family
Hastings Investigators: Thomas H. Murray and Gregory E. Kaebnick Funder: National Human Genome Research Institute This project was a collaboration between the Health Law and Policy Institute at the...Page
Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Bioethical Issues
Edited by Gregory E. Kaebnick (McGraw-Hill, 2020) This collection, designed for use in the classroom, includes current controversial issues in a debate-style format designed to stimulate student interest and develop critical thinking skills....Bioethics Forum Essay
An Evergreen Metaphor: Strachan Donnelley, Dan Callahan, and Environmental Ethics
The devastation of Hurricane Ida and the global threats of climate change are not on the fringe of bioethics. They call to mind the language of priority-setting typical of bioethics discourse. Who lives and who dies? What can be accomplished with prevention and more levees? And if more are built, how do we set priorities with limited resources?Read “An Evergreen Metaphor: Strachan Donnelley, Dan Callahan, and Environmental Ethics”
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The Ideal of Nature
Edited by Gregory E. Kaebnick (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011) Going back at least to the writings of John Stuart Mill and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, people have argued for and against maintaining...Bioethics Forum Essay
Are Arguments about GMO Safety Really About Something Else?
The scientific consensus that food containing genetically modified organisms is safe seems ever stronger, yet the social controversy about GMOs seems only to grow as well. “Unhealthy Fixation,” a long article published...Read “Are Arguments about GMO Safety Really About Something Else?”
Hastings Center News
Report Addresses Breakdown in Civic Discourse That is Threatening U.S. Democracy
A new report released by The Hastings Center concludes that civic learning in the United States, or how citizens engage in collective problem solving and make informed decisions that reflect the common good, is breaking down, threatening...Read “Report Addresses Breakdown in Civic Discourse That is Threatening U.S. Democracy”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Caster Semenya and the Challenges of Sports Brackets
If virtuous perfection of natural talents is what sports is all about, sports needs more people like Caster Semenya, the South African runner. But she is now ineligible for competing in middle distance events unless she takes medication to suppress her naturally high testosterone levels. Is this fair?Page
“De-Extinction”: Restoring Nature?
Principal Investigators: Gregory Kaebnick and Bruce Jennings Funder: Gaylin Fund and private donors Some scientists and conservationists believe that recently extinct species can sometimes be “brought back”—recreated through a mix of...Page
Genetic Ties and the Family: The Impact of Paternity Testing on Parents and Children
Edited by Mark A. Rothstein, Thomas H. Murray, Gregory E. Kaebnick, and Mary Anderlik Majumder (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005) Genetic Ties and the Family brings together experts in history, law,...Read “Genetic Ties and the Family: The Impact of Paternity Testing on Parents and Children”
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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...Page
Children’s Bodies, Parents’ Choices
More children than ever are undergoing medical interventions for nonmedical reasons. As parents consent to an increasing variety of procedures, the ethical and legal debate grows louder. These essays visit...Page
Ethical Issues in Synthetic Biology: Four Case Studies
Investigators: Gregory Kaebnick, Tom Murray, Erik Parens, Michael Gusmano Funder: The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Synthetic biology is a reality with potentially transformative benefits, including the production of inexpensive biofuels...Read “Ethical Issues in Synthetic Biology: Four Case Studies”
Bioethics Forum Essay
What’s at Stake with Genetically Modified Organisms
A remarkable set of essays appeared recently in Grist, a nonprofit dedicated to “dishing out environmental news and commentary,” about the warring claims over genetically modified organisms. In the inaugural piece last...Bioethics Forum Essay
De-Extinction: Could Technology Save Nature?
This past November, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature declared the western black rhinoceros of Africa, last seen in 2006, officially extinct. It also concluded that most other...Bioethics Forum Essay
New in Skin Care: Natural and GMO
At the end of April, the biotech firm Amyris announced that it was launching its own line of skin emollient under the brand name Biossance. The product is based on...Page
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”
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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?”
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Connecting Values With American Health Care Reform
Principal Investigators: Mary Crowley, Gregory Kaebnick, and Thomas Murray Funder: Adelson Family Foundation, Cranaleith Foundation When the Obama administration announced its intention to reform the American health care system, The Hastings Center launched a...Bioethics Forum Essay
Carefully Precautionary about Synthetic Biology?
A statement released on March 13 by a collection of environmental and other organizations is the latest salvo in a global debate about how far the regulation of synthetic biology...Page
Values in Emerging Technology Impact Assessment
Principal Investigator: Gregory Kaebnick Co-investigators: Michael Gusmano, Karen Maschke Funder: National Science Foundation Project Background There is near-universal agreement that the development and application of potentially powerful emerging technologies should be grounded on...Page
Animal Research Ethics: Evolving Views and Practices
Editors: Susan Gilbert, Gregory E. Kaebnick, and Thomas H. Murray Research involving animals has been a cornerstone of medical progress for more than two centuries. For much of that time,...Page
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”
Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Scholars Respond to Prison Sentence of Researcher Who Created First Gene-Edited Babies
The Compassionate Use Advisory Committee, headed by Hastings Center Fellow Arthur Caplan, of NYU Langone, received the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the Food and Drug Administration’s Innovation Award. The committee was recognized for transforming how expanded access requests, also known as compassionate use requests, are granted by drug developers.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...In the Media
Beyond Safety Questions, Gene Editing Will Force Us to Deal With a Moral Quandary
“We must remain skeptical of the notion that it makes sense to speak of having the best child . . . and be on guard against the notion that doing...Read “Beyond Safety Questions, Gene Editing Will Force Us to Deal With a Moral Quandary”
Hastings Center News
Yes, We’re Animals: Why We Should Face Up to This Reality Now
In an age of new biotechnologies, from gene editing to neural enhancement, is there a tension in the idea that humans have special value because they’re somehow different or exceptional in nature? Dwelling on the idea that there’s something extraordinary about being human – and ignoring our kinship with life on our planet – is becoming a problem, says Melanie Challenger, an award-winning British writer and a member of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics who has been a visiting scholar at The Hastings Center in November.Read “Yes, We’re Animals: Why We Should Face Up to This Reality Now”
In the Media
Hastings Scholar on New Device that Can Produce Synthetic Human Embryo-like Parts
Hastings Center's Josephine Johnston told the Washington Times that the work could raise the question of whether the embryo-like structures can be manipulated to create a fetus or whether these scientific techniques are bringing society closer to creating embryos from stem cells, which she described as likely implausible but understandable concerns for the public.Read “Hastings Scholar on New Device that Can Produce Synthetic Human Embryo-like Parts”
Hastings Center News
Should We Pursue Genetic Cognitive Enhancement?
That was one of the many questions explored at a public event at the New York Academy of Sciences on May 21, cosponsored by The Hastings Center, the Aspen Brain...Bioethics Forum Essay
Is it Ethical for Scientists to Create Nonhuman Primates with Brain Disorders?
In early 2016, Nature published a letter from a group of Chinese researchers reporting that they had created rhesus macaques with “autism-like” behaviors. The macaque was bred with a mutation...Read “Is it Ethical for Scientists to Create Nonhuman Primates with Brain Disorders?”
Hastings Center News
Watch the Livestream: Genomics Enters the Clinic
What do patients and DTC genetic test consumers need to know about the clinical applications of genetics? That question was the focus of a recent public event at the New York Academy of Sciences, cosponsosred by The Hastings Center. Read a recap of the highlights and watch the livestream.Hastings Center News
Five Things Bioethicists See in Our Future
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Transcript: New Ethical Questions and 21st Century Genomics
Read “Transcript: New Ethical Questions and 21st Century Genomics”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Daniel Callahan: In Memoriam
Hastings Center News
New Hastings Conversations Podcast: Should We Genetically Enhance Human Beings?
It has long been an ethical line not to be crossed: genetically enhancing humans – making us faster, smarter, or even kinder – in a way that is passed down...Read “New Hastings Conversations Podcast: Should We Genetically Enhance Human Beings?”
Hastings Center News
New Hastings Center Fellows Elected
The Hastings Center is pleased to announce the election of 12 new Fellows. Hastings Center Fellows are a group of more than 200 individuals of outstanding accomplishment whose work has...Hastings Center News
Roscoe Award for Early-Career Scholar’s Essay on Science, Ethics, & Society
Artificial intelligence, gene editing, and other powerful new technologies have profound implications for society. They will likely bring both potential benefits and safety concerns and have other ethical and social...Read “Roscoe Award for Early-Career Scholar’s Essay on Science, Ethics, & Society”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Myopic View of Xenotransplantation
. A report last week in the New York Times of a pig heart transplant performed at the University of Maryland Medical Center exemplifies a common myopic view of xenotransplantation research.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
The Federal Marriage Amendment and the New One Drop of Blood Rule
As anti-miscegenation laws took hold in an effort to stop blacks and whites from marrying, by necessity courts had to start deciding who counted as white or black. The standard...Read “The Federal Marriage Amendment and the New One Drop of Blood Rule”
News in Contect
New Technology Raises “Designer Baby” Concerns
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration held public hearings on February 25 and 26 to consider whether to permit scientists to begin human testing of a new method of assisted...Hastings Center News
Call for Nominations: 2021 David Roscoe Award for an Early-Career Scholar’s Essay on Science, Ethics, and Society
Artificial intelligence, Crispr gene editing, and other powerful new technologies have profound implications for society. They will likely bring both potential benefits and safety concerns and have other ethical and...Page
PRESS RELEASE: 9-29-15 The Genetics of Intelligence: Ethics and the Conduct of Trustworthy Research
With the advent of new genomic sequencing technologies, researchers around the world are working to identify genetic variants that help explain differences in intelligence. Can such findings be used to...Bioethics Forum Essay
The Era of the Motherless Embryo Just Got a Lot Closer
About eight years ago, as the controversy about research involving human embryonic stem cells was winding down and Barack Obama was about to take office, I had one of my...Read “The Era of the Motherless Embryo Just Got a Lot Closer”
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News in Context
Most recent: Bioethics in the Election: Where the Candidates Stand Should Scientists Create a Synthetic Human Genome? Uterus Transplants Raise Hope and Questions News to watch in 2016 Therapeutics or...Page
PRESS RELEASE: 9-10-15 Hastings Center Awarded NIH Grant
Prenatal testing is changing dramatically. With greatly expanded low-cost genetic tests – some as simple as a maternal blood test – prospective parents will soon be able to learn far...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 9-10-15 Hastings Center Awarded NIH Grant”
Hastings Center News
Daniel Callahan, 1930-2019
Hastings Center News
In New Frankenstein Edition, Hastings Scholar Asks, What Do We Owe Our Creations?
What do scientists and engineers owe to their creations? What responsibility do they bear for harms that their creations cause? How does being responsible for our creations change us? These...Read “In New Frankenstein Edition, Hastings Scholar Asks, What Do We Owe Our Creations?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
AI Meets Bioethics Literature: How Did It Do?
How accurately could AI translate complex medical information for lay persons? How well could it identify and distill the ethical dilemmas posed by research findings? What safeguards could be used to prevent the use of AI for misinformation and disinformation? We performed a small nonscientific experiment.Hastings Center News
The Ethics of Making Babies
On April 6-7, The Hastings Center co-sponsored “The Ethics of ‘Making Babies,’” Harvard Medical School’s Annual Bioethics Conference, which explored the ethical and legal issues raised by assisted reproductive technologies. ...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...Our Team
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...Bioethics Forum Essay
The Next President’s Council on Bioethics: Who Cares What It Does?
President Obama’s announcement that he will replace the members of the President’s Council on Bioethics has led to speculation about appointments and the issues a reconstituted commission might address. White...Read “The Next President’s Council on Bioethics: Who Cares What It Does?”
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Braingenethics Update: Monthly Roundup of Developments in the Genetics of Complex Human Behaviors
A new free monthly e-newsletter tracks rapidly evolving findings on genetic contributions to psychiatric, neurologic, and behavioral traits. Braingenethics Update is geared to scholars, scientists, journalists, and members of the public who...Page
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”
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Ethics and Organ Transplantation
Selected resources on from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Organ TransplantationThe central philosophical question in organ transplantation is how to ensure a fair and just system for the allocation of...Bioethics Forum Essay
The FDA Proposes Roadblocks to Laboratory Diagnostics
The American laboratory industry and its ability to serve patients are being challenged by a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposal that will create a new bureaucracy to regulate some of...Read “The FDA Proposes Roadblocks to Laboratory Diagnostics”
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Special Report Calls for Improved Oversight on “Chimeric” Human-Animal Research
A new report on the ethics of crossing species boundaries by inserting human cells into (nonhuman) animals for research purposes – research surrounded by debate–makes recommendations clarifying the ethical issues...Read “Special Report Calls for Improved Oversight on “Chimeric” Human-Animal Research”
Hastings Center News
Special Report Calls for Improved Oversight On “Chimeric” Human-Animal Research
A new report on the ethics of crossing species boundaries by inserting human cells into (nonhuman) animals for research purposes–research surrounded by debate–makes recommendations clarifying the ethical issues and calling...Read “Special Report Calls for Improved Oversight On “Chimeric” Human-Animal Research”
In the Media
U.S. Must Do Heavy Lifting to Prepare for Human Genome Editing
Read “U.S. Must Do Heavy Lifting to Prepare for Human Genome Editing”
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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...Page
PRESS RELEASE: 07-08-2019 Does Genetic Testing Pose Psychosocial Risks?
Read “PRESS RELEASE: 07-08-2019 Does Genetic Testing Pose Psychosocial Risks?”
Prenatal Testing Article
Evolution of Prenatal Testing
Over the past half century, medicine has gained new and improved tools and methods for assessing whether a fetus is likely to have—or has—a range of genetic and congenital conditions....Bioethics Forum Essay
Globalized Science in a Deglobalizing World
The arrest of Harvard chemist and nanobiologist Charles Lieber on charges of lying about his research funding from China encapsulates two phenomena currently in tension: the global nature of modern science and attempts to nationalize the fruits of science.Hastings Center News
Do Laws Restricting Transgender Youth-Athlete Participation Safeguard Fair Competition?
Twenty-one states have laws barring transgender youth-athletes from competing on public-school sports teams in accordance with their gender identity. Proponents claim that transgender females in particular have inherent physiological advantages...Read “Do Laws Restricting Transgender Youth-Athlete Participation Safeguard Fair Competition?”
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Ethics and the Genomics
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Genomics, Behavior, and Social Outcomes Within the past decade, sequencing of the human genome and the rapid development of large-scale DNA testing...Page
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”
Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Welcomes 13 New Fellows
The Hastings Center is pleased to announce the election of the 2023 fellows. Hastings Center fellows are a group of more than 200 individuals of outstanding accomplishment whose work has...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Third-Party Risks in Research: Should IRBs Address Them?
In addition to risks to individual research subjects, scientific research poses risks to third parties and to groups. Genetic research presents such significant third-party risks to groups that the National...Read “Third-Party Risks in Research: Should IRBs Address Them?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Preventing Homosexuality (and Uppity Women) in the Womb?
Two weeks ago, Time magazine reported on our ongoing efforts to protect the rights of pregnant women offered dexamethasone, a risky Class C steroid aimed at female fetuses that may...Read “Preventing Homosexuality (and Uppity Women) in the Womb?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
A Blood Test to Predict Alzheimer’s Disease: What’s the Elephant in the Room?
I recently gave a talk about Alzheimer’s disease and asked people to imagine two individuals, Manny and Sue. Manny died at 85; he was showing signs of age but living...Read “A Blood Test to Predict Alzheimer’s Disease: What’s the Elephant in the Room?”
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Students
Kenya Chavez Eden Cox Eden Cox is a senior Neuroscience major at Georgia State University. She is currently a member of the Dotson Laboratory at GSU where she is conducting...Hastings Center News
Omenn and Darling Gift to Bolster Trust in Scientific Innovation
Preeminent science researcher and science policy expert Gilbert S. Omenn, MD, PhD., and national nonprofit leader Martha A. Darling have made a major gift supporting “trusted and trustworthy scientific innovation”...Read “Omenn and Darling Gift to Bolster Trust in Scientific Innovation”
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Performance-Enhancing Technologies in Sports
Edited by Thomas H. Murray, Karen J. Maschke, and Angela A. Wasunna (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009) This book brings together an interdisciplinary group of experts in bioethics, sports, law, and...Bioethics Forum Essay
Polygenic Embryo Screening: Ethical and Legal Considerations
Last month, Bloomberg reported on what seems to be the first child born following a new kind of genome-wide screening. Four embryos were screened, and the embryo selected for implantation was the one given the best genetic odds of avoiding heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and schizophrenia in adulthood. The news has been met with some concerns about the degree of control we may now have over future generations.Read “Polygenic Embryo Screening: Ethical and Legal Considerations”
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Wrestling with Behavioral Genetics: Science, Ethics, and Public Conversation
Edited by Erik Parens, Audrey Chapman, and Nancy Press (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005) Hardly a month goes by without a media report proclaiming that researchers have discovered the gene for...Read “Wrestling with Behavioral Genetics: Science, Ethics, and Public Conversation”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Olympic Problems with Sex Testing
Ah, Beijing, where men are men and women are… women until proven otherwise. As reported in the New York Times, “Organizers of the Beijing Olympics have set up a sex-determination...Hastings Center News
Maschke Elected Hastings Center Fellow
Karen J. Maschke, a senior research scholar at The Hastings Center and editor of Ethics & Human Research, was elected a Hastings Center fellow on December 8, 2023. Hastings Center...Bioethics Forum Essay
Morally Indefensible Health Care Bills
There is a broad and deep moral conviction that health care should be distributed according to genuine need and not left to the cold mercy of pure market forces or the logic of actuarial fairness. Unfortunately, the proposed American Health Care Act (AHCA), passed last week in the House of Representatives, and other legislation threaten to undermine that moral commitment.Hastings Center News
Johnston Elected Hastings Center Fellow
Josephine Johnston, a senior research scholar at The Hastings Center, was elected a Hastings Center Fellow on December 8, 2023. Hastings Center Fellows are a group of more than 200 individuals...Page
PRESS RELEASE: 07-11-2019 Hastings Center Report, May-June 2019
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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...Page
Is Better Always Good? The Enhancement Project
An increasing number of biotechnologies offer ways of “enhancing” people. Examples are cosmetic surgery, gene therapies, performance drugs, and psychopharmacological agents such as antidepressants. This supplement tries to clear the...Page
Ethics and the Sports Enhancements
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Sports Enhancement The use of performance-enhancing substances in sport is not new, but the means of enhancement are increasingly sophisticated. The public...Page
The Ethics of Sequencing Newborns: Reflections and Recommendations
Edited by Josephine Johnston, Erik Parens, and Barbara A. Koenig As the cost of genome sequencing decreases, researchers and clinicians are debating whether all newborns should be sequenced at birth,...Read “The Ethics of Sequencing Newborns: Reflections and Recommendations”
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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...Bioethics Forum Essay
After the Election Bioethics Faces a Rocky Road
Academic bioethics has never been popular with Republicans. Libertarians dislike academic bioethics because it seems too elitist and anti-free market. Religious thinkers worry it is technocratic, soulless and crassly utilitarian....Page
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”
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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...Hastings Center News
Public Conference Explores Genetics, Autism, and Identity
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From Bioethics Briefings
Organ Transplantation
Framing the Issue Every day about 17 people in the United States die waiting for organ transplants. The deaths are especially tragic since many might be prevented if more organs...Bioethics Forum Essay
Bartering Your Eggs: A Rotten Deal
There is significant reproductive injustice and lack of access to fertility treatments by diverse populations. Nowhere is this more obvious than with egg freezing.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”
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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 February 10 – Preeminent science researcher and science...Read “Press Release: Omenn & Darling Gift to Bolster Trust in Scientific Innovation”
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Just Reproduction: Reimagining Autonomy in Reproductive Medicine
Edited by Louise P. King, Rachel L. Zacharias, and Josephine Johnston “In today’s dialogue about reproduction, medicine, and ethics in the United States, old ethical issues—such as whether women ought...Read “Just Reproduction: Reimagining Autonomy in Reproductive Medicine”
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Resources: Art of Flourishing Public Events Series
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Report Calls for Improved Oversight On “Chimeric” Human – Animal Research
December 12, 2022 – A new report on the ethics of crossing species boundaries by inserting human cells into (nonhuman) animals – research surrounded by debate – makes recommendations clarifying...Read “Report Calls for Improved Oversight On “Chimeric” Human – Animal Research”
From Bioethics Briefings
Genomics, Behavior, and Social Outcomes
Framing the Issue The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 ushered in technological advancements that have made genetic information more accessible to researchers and the public than ever...Bioethics Forum Essay
Teaching Ethics to Adolescents
I have been leading a weekly ethics class for middle- and early-high school-aged youth. My preconceived assumptions about the abilities of adolescents to discuss bioethics issues have been dispelled by the depth and nuance of their insights.Page
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
An Approach to Evaluating the Therapeutic Misconception
Subjects enrolled in studies testing high risk interventions for incurable or progressive brain diseases may be vulnerable to deficiencies in informed consent, such as the therapeutic misconception. However, the definition...Read “An Approach to Evaluating the Therapeutic Misconception”
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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 Polygenic Embryo Selection...Read “Genomic Findings on Human Behavior and Social Outcomes: FAQs”
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The Hastings Center Newsletter
We confront some of the most difficult challenges facing humanity. The world is not ready. Some of our research areas focus on ethics regarding the latest in pandemic issues, gene...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.In the Media
What Does It Mean to Offer Health Care to Undocumented Immigrants?
Hastings Center research scholar Nancy Berlinger told CNN about the patchwork of community-based and government providers currently providing health care to undocumented immigrantsRead “What Does It Mean to Offer Health Care to Undocumented Immigrants?”
In the Media
Hastings Scholar on Keys to Making Assistive Technology More Helpful
Many technologies created to make life easier for people with disabilities may have the opposite effect. In an interview on The Future of the Future podcast, Joel Michael Reynolds discusses why that is and how to make these technologies more useful. Reynolds is the Rice Family Fellow in Bioethics and Humanities at The Hastings Center and an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.Read “Hastings Scholar on Keys to Making Assistive Technology More Helpful”
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Children and Families
Human beings have long sought to control their reproduction and shape their children’s futures. Our power to do this is greater than ever before, and prompts difficult questions about the...Page
Science and the Self
Advances in genetics, epigenetics, neuroscience, psychology, and computer science are giving us a better understanding of who we are and why we function as we do. Science now enables us...In the Media
Is Your Socioeconomic Status Written in Your Genes?
Researchers are finding links between people’s genes and complex attributes such as socioeconomic status and the time spent in school. The worry is that their results will be misconstrued, states an article in Nature. It cites a new Hastings Center project that will examine the field and advise researchers and stakeholders on how to conduct and talk about the work. The project is headed by senior research scholar Erik Parens.In the Media
Crossing the Germline
Hastings Center's Josephine Johnston responds to "Double Spiral," a short story in Slate that depicts a world firmly rooted in today's debates over genetic editing.In the Media
Is It Ethical to Genetically Modify Species to Save Them from Extinction?
In an interview in Longreads, Hastings research scholar Gregory Kaebnick explains why he doesn't consider the genomic modification of species for conservation purposes to be either unnatural or unethical.Read “Is It Ethical to Genetically Modify Species to Save Them from Extinction?”
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...Page
The Hastings Center — Health, Science, and Technology Ethics
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Expert Contributor
Theodore Friedmann, MD
Bioethics Forum Essay
Hannah Arendt in St. Peter’s Square
Neither one of us expected to be talking about Hannah Arendt at the Vatican. We had been invited to give talks at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on the scientific and ethical challenges posed by personalized medicine. Walking across the cobblestones of St. Peter’s Square we began to discuss how society regulates biomedical research. Are institutional review boards capable of dealing with innovations like personalized medicine? Are they too bound by regulations? Can they ask larger questions of meaning when simply following the rules won't suffice? And most worrisome, has their bureaucratic function caused them to mistake regulatory compliance for ethical reflection?Hastings Center News
Hastings Partners on Unprecedented Genetics Resource Hub
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Hastings Center News
Hastings Center Welcomes Inaugural Rice Family Postdoctoral Fellow in Bioethics and the Humanities
Joel Michael Reynolds has joined The Hastings Center as its first Rice Family Postdoctoral Fellow in Bioethics and the Humanities. The fellowship is supported by the National Endowment for the...In the Media
Should We Sequence the Genome of Every Newborn?
Writing in Scientific American, Hastings director of research Josephine Johnston and Hastings Fellow Barbara Koenig say newborn sequencing should be done in targeted ways that are attentive to the needs of babies, families, and health systems.Hastings Center News
Hastings President Addresses National Conference on the Wise Use of Emerging Technologies
Hastings Center president Mildred Solomon delivered a keynote address at the Future of Medicine conference, a national health care conference celebrating the convergence of technology, bioethics, population health, and preventive...Read “Hastings President Addresses National Conference on the Wise Use of Emerging Technologies”
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Environment
Humans exert great pressure on the natural world. At the same time, human health and well-being face huge environmental challenges, particularly from the relentless rise of greenhouse gases driving climate...Hastings Center News
After the First CRISPR Drug, What’s Next?
The first therapy using CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technology—a drug for sickle-cell disease-—was approved a couple of months ago and hailed as a milestone. What might be the next CRISPR drugs?...Page
Science & Technology
Advances in genomics, neuroscience, synthetic biology, and nanoscience are merging with advances in computing and artificial intelligence, giving humans powers we have never had. In the 20th century, we had...In the Media
Hastings Scholar on Ethics of Coronavirus Vaccine Test
Hastings research scholar comments on the ethics of researchers' plans to break protocol and test a coronavirus vaccine in people before establishing its safety and effectiveness in animals.Read “Hastings Scholar on Ethics of Coronavirus Vaccine Test”
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Looking for the Psychosocial Impacts of Genomic Information
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