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Transcript | Vaccine Access, Vaccine Hesitancy: Challenges to Herd Immunity
A HASTINGS CENTER CONVERSATION WITH RHEA BOYD, MAYA GOLDENBERG, AND MILDRED SOLOMON The Hastings Center hosted “Vaccine Access, Vaccine Hesitancy: Challenges to Herd Immunity,” an online discussion of the ethical issues related...Read “Transcript | Vaccine Access, Vaccine Hesitancy: Challenges to Herd Immunity”
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”
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Ethical Challenges in the Middle Tier of Covid-19 Vaccine Allocation: Guidance for Organizational Decision-Making
Download PDF Nancy Berlinger, PhD; Matthew Wynia, MD, MPH; Tia Powell, MD; Aimee Milliken, RN, PhD, HEC-C; Parinda Khatri, PhD; Fatma Marouf, JD, MPH; Keisha Ray, PhD; Johanna Crane, PhD...Bioethics Forum Essay
Vaccine Hesitancy Is No Excuse for Systemic Racism
Fewer vaccines are going to Black people. While it’s easy to fall back on vaccine hesitancy as an excuse, systemic racism is to blame.Bioethics Forum Essay
Overcoming Covid Vaccine Hesitancy Among Minnesota’s Somali Muslims
When Covid-19 vaccines first became available last year, Somali Muslims in Minnesota--the largest Somali Muslim population in North America-- were fearful and, consequently, their vaccination rate was low and their Covid-19 rate was high. But health professionals and community representatives worked together to understand and overcome their vaccine hesitancy.Read “Overcoming Covid Vaccine Hesitancy Among Minnesota’s Somali Muslims”
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Vaccine Access, Vaccine Hesitancy: Challenges to Herd Immunity
If the United States is to achieve herd immunity, at least 75-85% of the population will need to be vaccinated, yet there are many different kinds of barriers to overcome....Read “Vaccine Access, Vaccine Hesitancy: Challenges to Herd Immunity”
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Ethics and Pandemic Response
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Pandemics: The Ethics of Mandatory and Voluntary Interventions Nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPI) such as isolation and quarantine, school closures, and social distancing measures...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...Bioethics Forum Essay
Islamic Ethics, Covid-19 Vaccination, and the Concept of Harm
Vaccine hesitancy is a concern around the world, but negative attitudes among Muslims in particular toward some coronavirus vaccines have been the focus of attention in the media. Some scholars in Asia recently issued fatwa against the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine. Media coverage has characterized the Muslim world as a hotspot for vaccine hesitancy, but experts point out biases in this coverage and explain the underlying reasons.Read “Islamic Ethics, Covid-19 Vaccination, and the Concept of Harm”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Prioritizing the “1a”: Ethically Allocating Scarce Covid Vaccines to Health Care Workers
Beginning this week, guarded vehicles loaded with the first Covid-19 vaccine authorized in the United States are fanning out to hospitals across the country. In vaccine prioritization protocols health care workers, along with nursing home residents, make up phase “1a” – those who are first in line to be vaccinated. While much attention has been paid to who should come next, less is known about how hospitals are allocating vaccine doses among their staff. For many medical centers, the first shipments will only be enough to vaccinate a fraction of their workers. Who goes first within the “1a” category, and how are such decisions made?Read “Prioritizing the “1a”: Ethically Allocating Scarce Covid Vaccines to Health Care Workers”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Research Benefits for Hypothetical HIV Vaccine Trials: The Views of Ugandans in the Rakai District
Collaborative, multinational clinical research is complicated by thorny ethical issues, especially when sponsored by developed world entities and conducted in the developing world. An overarching ethical concern in all research...Bioethics Forum Essay
Ashamed to Be Vaccinated? The Ethics of Health Care Employees Forgoing Unfair Priority
Suppose you are young, healthy, employed in a health care system and that your line of work does not require leaving the low-risk comfort of your home. Now suppose that your employer offers you a vaccine. You know there are others in your community who are at greater risk of contracting and dying from Covid-19 than you. Should you accept the dose?Read “Ashamed to Be Vaccinated? The Ethics of Health Care Employees Forgoing Unfair Priority”
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New Guidance for Middle-Tier Covid-19 Vaccine Allocation Focuses on Equity and Effectiveness in Reaching High-Risk Populations
PRESS RELEASE Contact: Susan Gilbert For Immediate Release 1-845-424-4040, ext. 244 communications@thehastingscenter.org New Guidance for Middle-Tier Covid-19 Vaccine Allocation Focuses on Equity and Effectiveness in Reaching High-Risk Populations Ethical Considerations...Hastings Center News
New Guidance Released for Covid-19 Vaccine Allocation
The Hastings Center released new guidance for local public health authorities and health care systems to help ensure equitable and effective prioritization of Covid-19 vaccine access, based on risk factors, in the months ahead.Read “New Guidance Released for Covid-19 Vaccine Allocation”
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Vaccine Mandates and Passports: Are They Legal and Ethical?
HASTINGS CONVERSATIONS: A SERIES Although roughly 60% of adults in the United States have had at least one Covid vaccine shot, many Americans remain reluctant, or outright opposed, to getting...Read “Vaccine Mandates and Passports: Are They Legal and Ethical?”
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
Ethics of Placebo Controls in Coronavirus Vaccine Trials
Multiple candidate vaccines for coronavirus are being evaluated scientifically in a process of unprecedented speed, and thousands of individuals around the world have volunteered to participate in placebo-controlled phase III field trials. If, or when, one of these candidate vaccines is proved to be safe and effective and receives an emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration, will it continue to be ethical to enroll participants in other coronavirus trials that randomize half of them to a placebo?Read “Ethics of Placebo Controls in Coronavirus Vaccine Trials”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Studying Covid Vaccines in the Youngest Kids
Children have suffered both physical and mental illness during the pandemic. Nearly 200 children in the United States have died. Acute mental health crises increased during the pandemic. Getting children immunized is the best way to get back to normal. We suggest an option that would permit children under 5 to be vaccinated without waiting until traditional prospective randomized trials can be completed.Bioethics Forum Essay
Undocumented Immigrants and Covid-19 Vaccination
Willingness to be vaccinated is not the only factor that may reduce vaccination rates. Fear is a powerful deterrent for individuals in hidden populations, especially undocumented immigrants. Even if their work or other circumstances place them at high risk of infection, many would be unlikely to risk the consequences of coming forward to be vaccinated.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)...COVID-19
Could the Common Cold Help Stop Covid-19? We Need to Know–Now.
In an essay published in Scientific American, we call for immediate and intensive research into the possibility that exposure to one of the coronaviruses that cause the common cold could decrease the severity of Covid-19, and could be leveraged to expand what’s been called “pre-existing” immunity to the disease by deliberate transmission of common cold coronaviruses. Here, we expand on our proposal.Read “Could the Common Cold Help Stop Covid-19? We Need to Know–Now.”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Human Challenge Studies for Covid-19 Vaccine: Questions about Benefits and Risks
Experts in infectious disease and public health warn that the Covid-19 pandemic will be with us until there is an effective vaccine, possibly 12 to 18 months in the future. This situation has given rise to calls for human challenge studies, in which healthy volunteers are injected with an experimental vaccine and then infected with the disease to test the vaccine’s efficacy. Is this ethically justifiable?Read “Human Challenge Studies for Covid-19 Vaccine: Questions about Benefits and Risks”
Bioethics Forum Essay
California U-Turn on Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren
The California legislature appears to have caved to pressure from opponents of a Covid vaccine mandate for schoolkids. I’d prefer to think of it as a wise and strategic retreat from a battle that mandate advocates could not win.Read “California U-Turn on Vaccine Mandates for Schoolchildren”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Accepting the Challenge: Covid Vaccine Challenge Trials Can Be Ethically Justified
The Covid-19 pandemic is unlikely to end until there is a safe, effective, and widely distributed vaccine. How soon can researchers achieve this goal? The answer largely depends on which strategies researchers are willing to adopt. One potential strategy is to conduct human challenge studies, in which researchers give an experimental vaccine to healthy volunteers and then test—or “challenge”—the vaccine by purposely exposing volunteers to the virus. Although a growing number of voices are calling on researchers to employ this strategy, the proposal is generating a heated debate about the ethics of such research.Read “Accepting the Challenge: Covid Vaccine Challenge Trials Can Be Ethically Justified”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Vaccine Mandates for Kids: It’s Not Whether, But When
States and school boards around the country are engaged in a debate about whether to require middle and high school students to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19. The debate is not so much about whether to mandate. It's when to do so.Read “Vaccine Mandates for Kids: It’s Not Whether, But When”
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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
Instead of Vaccine Passports, Let’s Push for Global Justice in Vaccine Access
In Costa Rica, where I live, only 24% of the population has received at least one vaccine dose because we have received very small amounts of vaccines. The Costa Rican president suggested that every person who can travel to the U.S. to get the jab, should do it. Vaccine tourism, then, seems to be another promising business opportunity for the powerful countries that have accumulated vaccines instead of redistributing them soon and fairly.Read “Instead of Vaccine Passports, Let’s Push for Global Justice in Vaccine Access”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Ethics and Evidence in the Search for a Vaccine and Treatments for Covid-19
In the rush to find a Covid-19 vaccine and one or more drugs to treat the deadly disease, concerns are being raised that ethical standards for conducting human clinical trials and the evidentiary standards for determining whether interventions are safe and effective, might be loosened.Read “Ethics and Evidence in the Search for a Vaccine and Treatments for Covid-19”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Efficacy is Relative in a Public Health Crisis: Evaluating the Next Wave of Covid-19 Vaccines
A third Covid vaccine candidate moving closer to potential FDA authorization is less effective than the two Covid vaccines already authorized in the United States. Is it ethical to offer a vaccine with lower efficacy? Is it ethical not to offer it in a public health emergency?Read “Efficacy is Relative in a Public Health Crisis: Evaluating the Next Wave of Covid-19 Vaccines”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Should Covid Vaccination Status Be Used to Make Triage Decisions?
As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to strain health systems’ capacity to provide adequate care for critically ill patients, should patients’ vaccination status be considered in making triage decisions? This question sparked debate recently after the leak of an internal memo of the North Texas Mass Critical Care Guideline Task Force that proposed using patients’ Covid-19 vaccination status as a factor to assign intensive care beds.Read “Should Covid Vaccination Status Be Used to Make Triage Decisions?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Ethics of Emergency Use Authorization During the Pandemic
The Food and Drug Administration's rigorous guidance for an emergency use authorization of a Covid vaccine was met by resistance from the White House, since some of the terms would make it virtually impossible to issue a vaccine-related emergency authorization before Election Day. Understanding the ethical dimensions of issuing it for a vaccine can provide clarity on the necessity of the FDA’s stringent guidelines.Read “Ethics of Emergency Use Authorization During the Pandemic”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Is It Ethical to Prohibit Off-Label Use of Covid-19 Vaccines in Kids?
In a new essay in the Hastings Center Report, we argue it is not. Yet the practice is prohibited.Read “Is It Ethical to Prohibit Off-Label Use of Covid-19 Vaccines in Kids?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Should We Enroll Our Child in a Covid-19 Vaccine Trial?
My partner and I are thinking a lot about this question. Moderna and Pfizer trials are running in our community–at the children’s hospital where I work as a clinical ethicist....Read “Should We Enroll Our Child in a Covid-19 Vaccine Trial?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Global Allocation of Coronavirus Vaccines
A Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has received emergency authorization in the United States and has been authorized in the countries, and a vaccine by Moderna is likely to be authorized soon. In spite of this good news, at least for the first couple of years, Covid-19 vaccines will be a scarce resource. Because low-income countries are likely to lose out in the scramble to get access to them, there have been calls for global solidarity. While equitable allocation of vaccines around the world would be ideal, it is unrealistic as a near-term goal.Bioethics Forum Essay
Anthrax Vaccine Trials for Children: Precautionary or Premature?
Last Thursday, the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues met in Washington, DC to assess the ethics of a clinical trial on anthrax vaccines for children. Secretary of Health and...Read “Anthrax Vaccine Trials for Children: Precautionary or Premature?”
COVID-19 RESOURCES
Ethics Guidance and Resources on Covid-19
As communities across the world work to navigate the pandemic, The Hastings Center has assembled ethics resources for responding to novel coronavirus Covid-19. We are updating this hub throughout the...Bioethics Forum Essay
Covid Vaccine Patent Waivers are for Health Sovereignty
The United States, Russia, and China support temporary patent waivers for Covid vaccines. The waivers, which need support from other countries, would likely save lives in low- and middle-income countries.Read “Covid Vaccine Patent Waivers are for Health Sovereignty”
COVID-19
Ethics Resources for Conducting Research in Public Health Emergencies
Read “Ethics Resources for Conducting Research in Public Health Emergencies”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Covid-19 Vaccination Certificates: Prospects and Problems
Now, with limited distribution of vaccines with varying degrees of efficacy there is renewed interest in immunity passports; more accurately described as vaccination certificates. What remains to be determined is who may use this documentation for what purpose.Read “Covid-19 Vaccination Certificates: Prospects and Problems”
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...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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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...Page
PRESS RELEASE: 08.15.12 Study Finds Pregnant Women Support Some Participation in Research
(Garrison, NY) A new study involving pregnant women who enrolled in randomized vaccine trials challenges the longstanding reluctance to conduct research with pregnant women because of ethical concerns about the...Read “PRESS RELEASE: 08.15.12 Study Finds Pregnant Women Support Some Participation in Research”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Fair Compensation for Rare Vaccine Harms
As multiple Covid vaccine candidates enter clinical trials and hopefully move closer to approval, one important unanswered question is how to compensate the rare cases of serious vaccine harm.Page
Securing Health in a Troubled Time
Forty million people live in poverty in the United States, a reality at odds with our great wealth and espoused principles. Health inequities, including dramatically decreased life expectancies and severe...Page
Hastings Conversations: Our Series
In 2020, The Hastings Center produced two Hastings Conversations series, Reopening the Nation, in response to the Covid-19 epidemic, and Securing Health in a Troubled Time, in response to racial...Bioethics Forum Essay
Science in the Biden White House: Eric Lander, Alondra Nelson, and the Legacy of Lewis Thomas
Science has replaced populism in the White House. For the first time, the president's science advisor will be elevated to cabinet rank. There are other good omens, as well.Read “Science in the Biden White House: Eric Lander, Alondra Nelson, and the Legacy of Lewis Thomas”
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Webinars
Below is a list of webinars hosted by The Hastings Center: In Science We Trust? Can AI Promote Our Health & Well-Being? Can AI Improve Healthcare for Everyone? Should AI...Bioethics Forum Essay
Ethics Supports Seeking Population Immunity, Not Immunizing Priority Groups
Vaccine allocation guidelines that prioritize people at greatest risk of Covid-19 require considerable administrative work (sometimes taking weeks). This is creating a bottleneck that has resulted in doses stuck in freezers not in arms. There's a better, more ethical way to allocate vaccines.Read “Ethics Supports Seeking Population Immunity, Not Immunizing Priority Groups”
Bioethics Forum Essay
With Pediatric Hospitalizations Rising, Reconsider Off-Label Covid Vaccination for Young Children
Pfizer recently announced that its trials in children 2 to 5 years old produced a weaker than expected antibody response and that it would hold off requesting authorization from the Food and Drug Administration. This news creates opportunities – and additional challenges – for off-label use of Covid-19 vaccines in children,Bioethics Forum Essay
Making Vaccine Appointments Is Tearing Us Apart
The Covid-19 vaccine rollout is currently a hub of individual, sociopolitical, and ethical activity. As we watch the numbers of daily doses administered rising, we may feel engaged in a...Bioethics Forum Essay
Nope. A Covid-19 Travel Pass isn’t Just like the Yellow Card.
Citing the Yellow Card as precedent for Covid-19 travel passes that exempt those with proof of vaccination from testing and quarantine mandates when crossing certain borders is an erroneous policy assumption that could prolong the pandemic and imperil global health.Read “Nope. A Covid-19 Travel Pass isn’t Just like the Yellow Card.”
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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...Bioethics Forum Essay
Volunteering for a Covid Vaccine Trial: Fulfilling Hindu Obligations or Fostering Pharmaceutical Company Profits?
Volunteering for a Covid-19 vaccine trial satisfied my altruistic goals and harmonizes with my Hindu beliefs. But I am troubled that a drug company is going to profit from my altruism and my religious obligations.Page
Should the FDA Have Approved the New Alzheimer’s Drug?
Should Patients Take It? Monday, July 12, 2021 The Food and Drug Administration’s accelerated approval of a new Alzheimer’s drug has created a firestorm of praise and outrage. Dissenters include...Read “Should the FDA Have Approved the New Alzheimer’s Drug?”
Hastings Center News
Advancing Vaccine Equity: Lessons Learned from the Federal Health Center Covid-19 Vaccine Program
How did federally funded nonprofit primary care centers for medically underserved patients promote equitable access to Covid vaccination? A new publication examines this question and reveals valuable lessons for supporting just vaccine allocation and improving health equity in the United States.Bioethics Forum Essay
The Need for Open and High Quality Preclinical Science
An investigative report The BMJ published recently about a failed tuberculosis vaccine trial conducted with infants in South Africa underscores several issues in translational science that are gaining increased attention:...Read “The Need for Open and High Quality Preclinical Science”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Vaccine Mandates for Health Care Workers Raise Several Ethical Dilemmas
The moral justification for mandating covid vaccination for health care workers is clear. But what happens if some health care workers still refuse to be vaccinated, and there aren't enough vaccinated staff to care for all the patients in a hospital?Read “Vaccine Mandates for Health Care Workers Raise Several Ethical Dilemmas”
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
Parents, Covid, and Trauma-Informed Choices
As the parent of a child under 5 years old, I am worried about what lies ahead for kids and Covid-19. The more contagious Delta variant is widely circulating, infecting...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”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself: Building Community During Covid
The opposition to mask and vaccine mandates transcends the issue of individual liberty.Read “Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself: Building Community During Covid”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Do Documentaries Have to Tell the Truth?
When the Tribeca Film Festival canceled its controversial screening of Vaxxed, a “documentary” (with scare-quotes) alleging a Centers for Disease Control cover-up of the debunked vaccine-autism link, it vindicated what scientists have collectively been saying...Bioethics Forum Essay
Back to School: The Covid Vaccination Choice
It’s back-to-school season in the United States, the third one during the Covid pandemic, but the first in which all schoolchildren are eligible for Covid vaccines. Yet fewer than a third of children ages 5 to 11 are fully vaccinated, while the percentage of those under 5 who have started–let alone completed–vaccination is in the low single digits. Why? The answers are complicated.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”
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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
Capitalist Philanthropy and Vaccine Imperialism
The commitments made by the wealthiest countries to share Covid vaccines and funding for international cooperation mechanisms are crucial, but insufficient. They reflect the “securitization of health,” a 21st century phenomenon whereby states turn health issues into national security issues.Bioethics Forum Essay
Navigating Ethics Review of Human Infection Trials With Zika
Human infection challenge studies, which deliberately expose healthy volunteers to disease-causing infectious agents under carefully controlled conditions, offer a valuable method of biomedical research aimed at efficient initial efficacy testing...Read “Navigating Ethics Review of Human Infection Trials With Zika”
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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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....Page
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...From Bioethics Briefings
Ethical Drug Pricing
Framing the Issue Many prescription drugs are prohibitively expensive. In the United States, brand-name prescription drug prices are higher than in other wealthy countries. New variants of drugs for...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...Bioethics Forum Essay
Warp Speed Bioethics
It takes less time than ever to publish papers. But is quality sacrificed by doing bioethics at warp speed, especially during the Covid pandemic?Bioethics Forum Essay
We Have Met the Enemy and It Is Us
In its early days, bioethics emphasized patient autonomy in the doctor-patient relationship. But patient autonomy is not the be-all and end-all principle to follow in all health care settings. Especially in lethal, airborne infectious disease pandemics.Bioethics Forum Essay
Is the Coronavirus Pandemic Accelerating Bioethics Nationalism?
The global crisis created by the coronavirus pandemic and the rush to create and distribute a vaccine widely hoped to be a “silver bullet” that can facilitate a return to “normalcy” threatens to upend seven decades of assumptions about bioethical norms.Read “Is the Coronavirus Pandemic Accelerating Bioethics Nationalism?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
The FDA and the Moral Distinction Between Killing and Letting Die
Why is the FDA dragging its feet in approving Covid vaccines for children under 12? Justifications lack moral weight.Read “The FDA and the Moral Distinction Between Killing and Letting Die”
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Covid-19 Ethical Framework and Supplements
Ethical Framework for Health Care Institutions Responding to Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19); Guidelines for Institutional Ethics Services Responding to Covid-19:March 16, 2020An ethically sound framework for health care during public...Bioethics Forum Essay
Research Bias Compromises Chimpanzee Protection Efforts
In December 2011, a landmark Institute of Medicine (IOM) report concluded that advances in science and medicine “have rendered chimpanzees largely unnecessary as research subjects.” Yet a recent search on the U.S....Read “Research Bias Compromises Chimpanzee Protection Efforts”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
The Guinea Phase III Ebola Vaccine Trial: Lessons for Research Ethics Review in Public Health Emergencies
This paper discusses the ethics review by one of the three research ethics committees that approved the Ebola vaccine trial carried out in the Republic of Guinea in 2015. It...Bioethics Forum Essay
Exhortations to Trust Biomedical Experts: What’s Missing?
Disagreements among biomedical experts regarding whether the scientific evidence supports delaying the second shot of Covid-19 vaccines or pausing the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines because of very rare side effects bring to the fore missing aspects in exhortations to trust biomedical experts.Read “Exhortations to Trust Biomedical Experts: What’s Missing?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Measles, Vaccination, and the Tragedy of the Commons
After having been virtually eliminated in the United States in the year 2000, measles have made a comeback, with nearly 150 cases in 17 states and nearly 30 confirmed cases of the...News in Contect
Ebola and AIDS Comparisons
Several recent news reports have drawn comparisons between the response to Ebola and the response to AIDS in the early days of that epidemic. In both cases there were questions...Page
Disaster Planning and Bioethics
Selected resources from The Hastings Center. Bioethics Briefings: Disaster Planning and Public Health Bioethics Briefing A public health emergency exists when the health consequences of a decision have the potential...Bioethics Forum Essay
Flattening the Curve, Then What?
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TRANSCRIPT: Communicating Ethical Challenges in Crises
Novmber 15, 2022 Transcription by machine — may contain errors Elizabeth Lanphier So thank you all for being here today. It’s my pleasure to welcome you to this inaugural session...Read “TRANSCRIPT: Communicating Ethical Challenges in Crises”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Bioethics, Nazi Analogies, and the Coronavirus Pandemic
The year 2020 will be remembered as the first year of the coronavirus pandemic. But the pandemic was not alone in creating fear and dismay and raising ethical questions. Think of the rise in antisemitism, police violence against Black people, protests against immigration, and rallies by groups espousing Nazi slogans and symbols. Hate crimes, including murder, are the highest in years, according to the most recent FBI report, and were particularly aimed at Jews and Hispanics. Asian-Americans have been targeted as carriers of the so-called “China virus.”Read “Bioethics, Nazi Analogies, and the Coronavirus Pandemic”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Women’s Views about Participating in Research While Pregnant
Pregnant women and their interests have been underrepresented in health research. Little is known about issues relevant to women considering research participation during pregnancy. We performed in-depth interviews with 22...Read “Women’s Views about Participating in Research While Pregnant”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Financing Reforms to Meet a Pivotal Moment in Global Health
This year will be the most important moment for global health since WHO’s founding in 1948, but only if states give major reforms their full political and financial backing.Read “Financing Reforms to Meet a Pivotal Moment in Global Health”
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?”
Hastings Center News
Dr. Fauci on Public Trust in Science
Dr. Anthony Fauci and Mildred Solomon explored the ethical issues raised by the erosion of trust in science in a virtual discussion hosted by The Hastings Center on November 19. The nation’s top infectious diseases official and the Hastings president looked at how we can improve public understanding of complex scientific issues in this highly polarized, fraught time.Bioethics Forum Essay
Responding to Zika: Ethical Challenges of Zoonotic Diseases
The World Health Organization will hold an emergency committee meeting on the pandemic reemergence of Zika virus and the explosive increase in reported cases of congenital microcephaly in Brazil possibly linked to...Read “Responding to Zika: Ethical Challenges of Zoonotic Diseases”
Bioethics Forum Essay
A Secret to Restoring Trust in Vaccines
I am a bioethicist who became a local pro-vaccine activist in New York City to protect vulnerable communities from dangerous misinformation. I have spent much of my time trying to convince people not to believe what RFK Jr. has said.Bioethics Forum Essay
Too Taboo to Contemplate? Refusing Covid Vaccination for Some People with Dementia
There are a whole lot of us who think that, if we had dementia and were unable to live independently, we would prefer death. The idea that someone suffering from dementia and confined to a nursing home might actually welcome death is apparently so taboo that it cannot be openly contemplated.Read “Too Taboo to Contemplate? Refusing Covid Vaccination for Some People with Dementia”
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Transcript | Re-Opening the Nation: What Values Should Guide Us?
Read “Transcript | Re-Opening the Nation: What Values Should Guide Us?”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Research Ethics Committees in Nigeria: A Survey of Operations, Functions, and Needs
Heightened global commitment to research on diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria has led to increased research over the past decade in many African countries, including Nigeria. This increase...Read “Research Ethics Committees in Nigeria: A Survey of Operations, Functions, and Needs”
Bioethics Forum Essay
What Warrants Religious Exemption from Covid Vaccine Mandates?
Faced with mandatory Covid vaccination, students and employees have appealed to religion as grounds for exemption. This latest conscience war within our culture wars presents a minefield of legal and philosophical complexities for states and health care systems.Read “What Warrants Religious Exemption from Covid Vaccine Mandates?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
The End of Roe v. Wade Will Be a Nightmare for Disabled Americans
The end of federal abortion rights is a disability justice issue—but not in the way you might think.Read “The End of Roe v. Wade Will Be a Nightmare for Disabled Americans”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Vaccine Exemptions and the Church-State Problem
The current measles outbreak has brought public attention to the ease with which vaccine exemptions are available. As the media continually inform us, 48 states allow for religious exemptions, while...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
Covid-19 in Argentina and the Abuse of Bioethics
Many Latin American countries are being devastated by excessive loss of life from Covid-19, many sectors of society falling below the poverty line, and health systems being overwhelmed. As collateral damage, some countries in the region are witnessing an eruption of populism and autocratic trends and an increasing erosion of already weak and unstable democracies. Can bioethics be a useful tool for managing this crisis? Argentina provides a case study.Bioethics Forum Essay
After the Anniversary of Covid, Reckoning with Many New Normals
Anniversaries are complicated. In rehabilitation psychology, the anniversary of an accident that caused a brain or spinal cord injury can be a time for profound gratitude and for grief. Now that we have passed the one-year anniversary of the Covid pandemic, each of us continues to deal with the repercussions and wondering what the "new normal" may look like.Read “After the Anniversary of Covid, Reckoning with Many New Normals”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Bioethics in the Second Cold War
Bioethics is an integral part of the liberal international order intentionally developed after World War II. Following the Russian war on Ukraine there is every reason to believe that the set of norms and institutions that preserved peace in Europe through the first Cold War will be revised according to new assumptions that will structure international relations in a second Cold War.Bioethics Forum Essay
Treating Gun Violence as a Public Health Threat: Not Exactly What We Meant
This week, the United States saw two momentous public health events: one million deaths attributed to Covid and the 198th mass shooting of the year. Both the pandemic and gun shootings are threats to public health that are not being adequately addressed.Read “Treating Gun Violence as a Public Health Threat: Not Exactly What We Meant”
Hastings Center News
Hastings Center President Speaks on Systemic Racism, Health Inequities, and Covid-19
Read “Hastings Center President Speaks on Systemic Racism, Health Inequities, and Covid-19”
Bioethics Forum Essay
As Chimp Research is Phased Out, Will Other Animal Research Decline?
The institution of animal experimentation is a house of cards, and a stiff wind is blowing at last. At a meeting last month about federal funding for science, former National...Read “As Chimp Research is Phased Out, Will Other Animal Research Decline?”
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Covid-19 Update: Essential Resources on Immigrant Health
Updated December 12, 2020 The novel coronavirus pandemic has highlighted the vulnerabilities of low-wage immigrants to viral infection and severe Covid-19 illness. This public health emergency compounds the social (non-medical)...Read “Covid-19 Update: Essential Resources on Immigrant Health”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Ethical Issues in Cancer Chemoprevention Trials: Considerations for IRBs and Investigators
Relatively little attention has been paid to cancer chemoprevention research in the research ethics literature, especially compared to the ethical analyses of oncology treatment trials. Cancer chemoprevention trials test the...Read “Ethical Issues in Cancer Chemoprevention Trials: Considerations for IRBs and Investigators”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Vaccination Discrimination Goes Against Nursing Ethics
Some health care providers are prioritizing patients who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 over those who are unvaccinated. This is unethical.Read “Vaccination Discrimination Goes Against Nursing Ethics”
Hastings Center News
Q & A with Vardit Ravitsky
Welcome to The Hastings Center! You join the Center from the University of Montreal, where you were a professor in the bioethics program in the School of Public Health. You’re...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?”
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Advancing Social Justice, Health Equity, and Community
TRANSCRIPT: February 9, 2021 Hello, good afternoon. If you’re on the East Coast and welcome to the annual Daniel Callahan lecture, advancing social justice, health, equity and Community. We are...Read “Advancing Social Justice, Health Equity, and Community”
From Bioethics Briefings
Pandemics: The Ethics of Mandatory and Voluntary Interventions
[This chapter is adapted from “Influenza Pandemic,” by Alexandra Minna Stern and Howard Markel, in From Birth to Death and Bench to Clinic: The Hastings Center Bioethics Briefing Book for...Read “Pandemics: The Ethics of Mandatory and Voluntary Interventions”
Bioethics Forum Essay
How Many Covid-19 Deaths Should We Accept?
President Biden recently declared that the Covid-19 “pandemic is over.” Some public health experts agreed with this assessment; others disagreed. What cannot be disputed is that nearly 12,000 Americans have...Bioethics Forum Essay
New York’s Measles Outbreak: Take Off Your Shoes and Roll Up Your Sleeve
Today’s New York Times reported a rare outbreak of measles in New York City. Because the disease was mostly eradicated by 2000, most clinicians were baffled by the high fevers, rash, and respiratory...Read “New York’s Measles Outbreak: Take Off Your Shoes and Roll Up Your Sleeve”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Omicron, the Legacy of Renée Fox, and the Uncertain Practice of Medicine
Like the pandemic, uncertainty, growing confidence, and the return of doubt come in waves. The Omicron variant is just the latest twist in this plot.Read “Omicron, the Legacy of Renée Fox, and the Uncertain Practice of Medicine”
Bioethics Forum Essay
We Can’t Forget the Nation’s Other Epidemic
Covid isn’t merely overshadowing the drug overdose crisis—it’s directly worsening it.IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Marginalized Populations and Drug Addiction Research: Realism, Mistrust, and Misconception
Making a reasoned decision to participate in a randomized controlled trial requires, among other factors, understanding of the uncertain efficacy and risks of the experimental treatment, random assignment to interventions,...Read “Marginalized Populations and Drug Addiction Research: Realism, Mistrust, and Misconception”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Good News for Chimpanzees in U.S. Labs
Two announcements today have changed the conversation about the use of chimpanzees in research. The first announcement came from an Institute of Medicine committee and its much-anticipated report on the necessity of chimpanzees in...Page
Covid-19 Ethical Framework and Supplements
Ethical Framework for Health Care Institutions Responding to Novel Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19); Guidelines for Institutional Ethics Services Responding to Covid-19, March 16, 2020, https://www.thehastingscenter.org/ethicalframeworkcovid19/. Responding to Covid-19 as a Regional...From Bioethics Briefings
Clinical Trials
Framing the Issue Clinical research with human participants utilizes a systematic approach to help understand human health and illness in order to find safe and effective ways to prevent, diagnose,...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Reformed Consent: Adapting to New Media and Research Participant Preferences
The principle of respect for persons clearly demands that investigators communicate with potential research participants in a way that fosters comprehension of the information relevant to deciding whether to enroll...Read “Reformed Consent: Adapting to New Media and Research Participant Preferences”
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”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
An Intervention to Improve Cancer Patients’ Understanding of Early-Phase Clinical Trials
The consent process for human subjects research educates potential participants about research risks, benefits, and procedures so they can make an informed decision about whether to enroll in a clinical...Read “An Intervention to Improve Cancer Patients’ Understanding of Early-Phase Clinical Trials”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Pathogens and Humans
In a 1988 essay on pandemics, Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg wrote, “We have no guarantee that the natural evolutionary competition of viruses with the human species will always find ourselves the winner.”Bioethics Forum Essay
Why We Need a Covid-19 Commission
Congress recently announced plans for an independent commission to investigate the facts and causes of the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. This 1/6 Commission is to be modelled after the 9/11 Commission. A national commission to investigate the disaster that the Covid-19 virus has caused in America must also be launched.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.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?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
When to Reopen the Nation is an Ethics Question—Not Only a Scientific One
As the world reels from the Covid-19 pandemic, two things have become very clear: the health impacts of the disease are devastating, but the aggressive social distancing policies currently being used to flatten the curve also have serious costs. As a result, the question of when and how to reopen the nation is on everyone’s mind. Do we open quickly in an effort to kick-start the economy? Or do we remain under lockdown as long as possible to stop the spread of the virus?Read “When to Reopen the Nation is an Ethics Question—Not Only a Scientific One”
SPECIAL EVENT
Re-Opening the Nation: Should We Turn to Immunity Testing?
Read “Re-Opening the Nation: Should We Turn to Immunity Testing?”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Individual Freedom or Public Health? A False Choice in the Covid Era
When scientists first suggested population-wide social distancing as the only feasible way to suppress Covid-19, they were the first to admit it may not work in a free society. We are now months into placing mass restrictions on human behavior to suppress a virus that lacks an effective vaccine or treatment. Now is the time to ask: is this the authoritarian nightmare many feared, or will freedom and democracy survive Covid-19?Read “Individual Freedom or Public Health? A False Choice in the Covid Era”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Teaching Medical Ethics During the Pandemic
Despite the disruptive changes to my undergraduate medical ethics class this semester, my students have learned a lot about the paradox that the coronavirus presents: it is an unprecedented event, beyond the experience of nearly everyone alive today, and yet it puts on grim display the well-known problems of inequality that chronically plague the United States. Since week six of the semester, I have readjusted each unit on the syllabus to address some of the ethical issues that Covid-19 has brought to the fore, familiar challenges that have been stressed and distorted in astonishing ways by the pandemic.Bioethics Forum Essay
Should Ethicists Be at the Table in Public Health Policy Deliberations?
In a recent article in The New England Journal of Medicine, Ezekiel Emanuel and colleagues clearly illustrate the relevance of ethical considerations to policy deliberations concerning public health emergencies. But do ethicists belong at the table?Read “Should Ethicists Be at the Table in Public Health Policy Deliberations?”
HASTINGS CENTER REPORT
Responding to COVID-19: How to Navigate a Public Health Emergency Legally and Ethically
Lawrence O. Gostin, Eric A. Friedman, and Sarah A. Wetter [This article appears in the Hastings Center Report, March-April 2020] Few novel or emerging infectious diseases have posed such vital...Read “Responding to COVID-19: How to Navigate a Public Health Emergency Legally and Ethically”
From Our Journals
Why Challenge Trials of SARS‐CoV‐2 Vaccines Could Be Ethical Despite Risk of Severe Adverse Events
Bioethics Forum Essay
Who Will Be There to Care If There Are No More Nurses?
The pandemic has laid bare the significant shortcomings of a health system rooted in an unsustainable financial model that exploits the physical and emotional labor of its nurses.Read “Who Will Be There to Care If There Are No More Nurses?”
Our Team
Dara Richardson-Heron
Dr. Richardson-Heron is a former Fortune 100 corporate executive, board director, physician, and public speaker with more than 25 years of leadership excellence in health care and the corporate, government,...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”
IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Money, Coercion, and Undue Inducement: Attitudes about Payments to Research Participants
Researchers nearly always offer money to healthy individuals—and increasingly to individuals who are ill—as an incentive to enroll in research studies and as compensation for research participation.1Yet there is a...Read “Money, Coercion, and Undue Inducement: Attitudes about Payments to Research Participants”
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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
Public Reason, Public Schools, and Mask Mandates
In South Carolina, where I live, we are not just ignoring good arguments, but actually legislating on the basis of bad ones. The budget rule, Proviso 1.108, threatens the funding of schools that require masks.Our Team
Mildred Z. Solomon
Mildred Solomon has an international reputation for her research on, and advocacy for, wiser health care and science policy. She was President of The Hastings Center from 2012 to June...Page
What is Bioethics?
Bioethics is the interdisciplinary study of ethical, legal, and social issues arising in the life sciences and health care. Though it has roots tracing back decades or generations earlier, modern...Bioethics Forum Essay
Bringing Ethics into the Global Coronavirus Response
Covid-19 is a matter of public and global health ethics, and the pandemic is currently accelerating cooperation within and contributions from these fields. A meeting on June 27, hosted by the European Union and Global Citizen, is the latest example another global pledging event on June 27, will include governments and large institutions, as well as individuals and communities worldwide.Bioethics Forum Essay
Lawsuits of Last Resort: Employees Fight for Safe Workplaces during Covid-19
As more workplaces open up, a seldom-used legal action is being taken against employers charged with inadequately protecting employees from the coronavirus: public nuisance lawsuits.Read “Lawsuits of Last Resort: Employees Fight for Safe Workplaces during Covid-19”
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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....Hastings Center News
Improving Access Key to Improving Health Equity
Improving access to health care is critical to improving health equity, stated health care leaders at a panel at the health equity summit sponsored by The Hastings Center earlier this...IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Barriers to Change in the Informed Consent Process: A Systematic Literature Review
The informed consent process for clinical research is one that includes personal interactions, the informed consent document, and an individual’s decision about whether to participate in research. The intent is...Read “Barriers to Change in the Informed Consent Process: A Systematic Literature Review”
Expert Contributor
Nathaniel Mamo
Nathaniel Mamo, MA, is a program coordinator in the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and associate director of the #GiveOneTalk Vaccine Information Project.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
How Bioethicists Can Help Reduce Global Health Inequities
The state of global health is a major concern. Despite advances in medicine and medical care and massive growth of the global economy, health in the world is characterized by...Read “How Bioethicists Can Help Reduce Global Health Inequities”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Pandemic Language
Bioethics Forum Essay
On Being an Elder in a Pandemic
Do the elderly have special obligations during a pandemic, that is, something more than the duty we all have for hand washing, social distancing, and so on? I believe the answer is, yes, and foremost among these is an obligation for parsimonious use of newly scarce and expensive health care resources.Bioethics Forum Essay
A Warning from China: After the Zero Covid Policy
A massive wave of Covid infections has begun now that China has ended much of its zero Covid policy. Three steps ought to be taken.IRB: Ethics & Human Research
Children Enrolled in Parents’ Research: A Uniquely Vulnerable Group in Need of Oversight and Protection
In January 2009, the New York Times published on the front page an article about scientists conducting research on their own young children.1 Of the approximately 60 comments responding to the article, more...Bioethics Forum Essay
Report from China: Ethical Questions on the Response to the Coronavirus
Hastings Center fellows in China discuss ethical questions about the response to the spreading coronavirus.Read “Report from China: Ethical Questions on the Response to the Coronavirus”
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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
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....Bioethics Forum Essay
Ethical Medicine Means Getting Political
Dilemmas that clinicians face in the coronavirus pandemic–who gets the ventilator, the 80-year-old grandmother or the 20-year-old student?–are the bread and butter of mainstream bioethics. In medical school, my classmates and I memorized the four principles (beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, and autonomy), which we were told would help us make hard clinical decisions in ethically ambiguous terrain. But Covid-19 shows that medical ethics means much more than what generally falls under bioethics. Medical ethics is deeply political, and to act ethically in medicine means engaging the larger context in which it operates.Page
Report Finds Breakdown in Civic Discourse Threatens U.S. Democracy
PRESS RELEASE Contact: Susan Gilbert For Immediate Release 1-845-424-4040, ext. 244 communications@thehastingscenter.org NEW YORK, February 25 – A new report released by The Hastings Center, the leading bioethics research institute,...Read “Report Finds Breakdown in Civic Discourse Threatens U.S. Democracy”
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.Bioethics Forum Essay
Resilience and the Twin Medical Catastrophes of War and Pandemic
As I sit here in my office at the Slovak Medical University in Bratislava, my colleagues are experiencing great moral anguish because of Russia’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Simultaneously, we are also confronting the Omicron wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The war complicates and burdens health care here and in other border nations exponentially, and especially so in combination with the pandemic.Read “Resilience and the Twin Medical Catastrophes of War and Pandemic”
Bioethics Forum Essay
Continuing the Dialogue on Bioethics and Populism
Franklin Miller’s recent post in Bioethics Forum responded to our essay, “Bioethics and Populism: How Should Our Field Respond?” in the current issue of the Hastings Center Report. There, we suggested...Bioethics Forum Essay
Motivated Ignorance: A Challenge for Science Communication and Democracy
Many people are deeply interested in the political process and awash in relevant information., but nevertheless often grossly misinformed, holding confident but unfounded opinions at odds with widely accessible evidence The recent riot at Capitol Hill is just one illustration–albeit a horrifying one–of such misinformation and its potential consequences. The anti-vaccine movement is another example.Read “Motivated Ignorance: A Challenge for Science Communication and Democracy”
Bioethics Forum Essay
A Student’s Perspective: Universities Must Require Vaccination
Colleges and universities have an ethical obligation to mandate covid vaccines to protect the health and futures of both their students and the larger communities, in addition to promoting equality through education.Read “A Student’s Perspective: Universities Must Require Vaccination”
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Bioethics Briefings
Hastings Bioethics Briefings contains overviews of issues in bioethics of high public interest, such as abortion, brain injury, organ transplantation, physician-assisted death, racism, and stem cell research. The chapters, written by leading ethicists,...