Neuroscience and Society Series Launches What do we owe the "brain pioneers"? What is good for society?
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 to the volunteers. This is the conclusion of two new essays in the Hastings Center Report that launch a series on the ethical and social issues raised by brain research. The “Neuroscience and Society” series is supported by the Dana Foundation and will be published in open-access format online over the next three years. Learn more and read the essays.
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Redefining Remembrance: Posthumous Sperm Retrieval in Israel After October 7 War prompts examination of the ethical and social values at play.
Retrieving sperm from deceased males is a complex and contentious issue that raises numerous moral, legal, and social concerns. Recent events in Israel, particularly involving posthumous sperm retrieval from soldiers, amplify this dilemma, prompting a critical examination of the broader implications and societal values at play, write Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky and Harvard law student Roee Amir in a recent commentary. Among the questions: Should parents of the deceased, or only his partner, be allowed to request sperm retrieval? Should the deceased’s prior consent be necessary? What are the potential implications for offspring conceived posthumously? Read the commentary.
In the Media Hastings scholars respond to first pig kidney transplant in a person, DIY cloning
Pig Kidney Transplant. This month, a man with end-stage kidney disease became the first living person to receive a genetically modified kidney from a pig. Finding out whether animal-to-human transplants, or xenotransplants, are safe and effective will require clinical trials involving several patients, noted Hastings Center senior research scholar Karen Maschke. In contrast, she told NBC News, the pig kidney transplant was “a one-off transplant” that was not conducted as part of a clinical trial. Read the NBC News article.
Maschke is a principal investigator on a project that is developing ethical and policy recommendations for pig kidney xenotransplant trials. Learn about the project.
DIY Cloning. A Montana rancher was recently charged with illegally selling offspring from a cloned endangered sheep. Could the cloned sheep impact wild species or harm ecosystems? Hastings Center senior research scholar Gregory E. Kaebnick doesn’t think so, he told Business Insider, but he sees reason for concern in the future. “Some of this technology is coming down to what's sometimes called the DIY bio level or the garage bio level," he said. "People are sort of trying to hack genomes in their basements.” Read the Business Insider article.
Bioethics: A Path Forward to Face Future Challenges, a talk by Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky, Weill Cornell Medicine Medical Ethics Series (virtual). April 1.
Polygenic Embryo Screening: The Promise and Perils of Selecting our Children's Traits, a webinar featuring Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky, Boston Museum of Science and Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics. April 19.
Demystifying Medicine, a National Institutes of Health videocast with Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky. May 7.
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