Gregory E. Kaebnick
Ph.D.
Director, Editorial Department; Editor, Hastings Center Report; Research Scholar
Download CV for 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 also the director of the Editorial Department and the editor of the Hastings Center Report. He has testified before Congress on ethical issues concerning the use of new genetic technologies and served on a National Research Council and National Academy of Sciences committee, Gene Drive Research in Non-Human Organisms: Recommendations for Responsible Conduct.
Dr. Kaebnick is currently the principal investigator of a project on the role of values in impact assessment of emerging technologies and a coinvestigator of a project on the potential social and ethical implications of using gene editing technologies on human germline cells. Previously, he led two projects that examined ethical concerns about synthetic biology (here and here): The Ideal of Nature: Appeals to Nature in Debates about Biotechnology and the Environment, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and Genetic Ties and the Future of the Family, funded by the National Institutes of Health, which explored the ramifications of genetic paternity testing for the parent-child relationship.
He received his B.A. in religion from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Minnesota.
Books
Gregory E. Kaebnick, ed., Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Bioethical Issues (McGraw-Hill, 2015).
Gregory E. Kaebnick, Humans in Nature: The World as We Find It and the World as We Create It (Oxford University Press, 2013).
Gregory E. Kaebnick and Thomas H. Murray, eds., Synthetic Biology and Morality: Artificial Life and the Bounds of Nature (MIT Press, 2013).
Gregory E. Kaebnick, ed., Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Bioethical Issues (McGraw-Hill, 2013).
Gregory E. Kaebnick, ed., The Ideal of Nature (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).
Lori P. Knowles and Gregory E. Kaebnick, eds., Reprogenetics: Law, Policy, and Ethical Issues, (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).
In the Media
BuzzFeed, on the potential use of genetic engineering to home-brew opioids
Washington Post on the ethics of the president pardoning a turkey before Thanksgiving
Selected Scholarly Publications
Gregory E. Kaebnick, Michael K. Gusmano, and Thomas H. Murray, “Ethical Questions of Synthetic Biology: Next Steps and Prior Questions,” Hastings Center Report 44, no. 55 (2014): s4-26.
Gregory E. Kaebnick, “Of Microbes and Men,” Hastings Center Report 41, no. 4 (2011): 25.
“Should Moral Objections to Synthetic Biology Affect Public Policy?” Nature Biotechnology 27,
no. 12 (2009): 1106.
Selected Commentaries
“Should We Leave Our Wilderness to Its Fate?,” New York Times, July 11, 2014.
“Is the ‘Synthetic Cell’ about Life?,” The Scientist, July 2010.
Congressional Testimony
Posts by Gregory E. Kaebnick
- Bioethics Forum Essay
Masks, Values, and a Lesson for Democracy?
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayAs 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.Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
The Elephant from Heaven and the Chicken from Hell–or: Colossal Fantasies
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayI 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 Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Caster Semenya and the Challenges of Sports Brackets
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayIf 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?Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Rationality as Understood by a Neanderthal
Read the Post - Bioethics Forum Essay
Fix the Planet, or Change the Creatures In It?
Read the PostBioethics Forum EssayPossibly 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 just because of climate change, which is gradually heating the water and making it more acidic. The solution everyone who cares abou...Read the Post
Related Posts
- Hastings Center News
Ethics and Pandemic Policies: Democracy in Crisis
Read the PostHastings Center NewsEthics 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 less effective in addressing broader questions about how we should live together in this and future pandemics. A...Read the Post - Page
The Hastings Center Bioethics Timeline
Read the PostPage“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 it has roots tracing back decades or generations earlier, modern bioethics is widely held to have aris...Read the Post - DEMOCRACY IN CRISIS
Democracy in Crisis: Civic Learning and the Reconstruction of Common Purpose
Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Report Addresses Breakdown in Civic Discourse That is Threatening U.S. Democracy
Read the Post - Hastings Center News
In the Media: The Hastings Center Responds to Covid-19
Read the Post - Hastings Center News
Gregory Kaebnick on Responsible Use of Gene Drives
Read the PostHastings Center NewsA 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 addressing persistent problems, such as eradicating Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases and conserving endangered species,...Read the Post - Page
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
Read the PostPage(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, D.C. Gregory Kaebnick, PhD, will be one of the speakers. Kaebnick, a research scholar at The Hastings Center and edito...Read the Post
