Dorothy Roberts chat, living in an aging society, community health centers, Hastings in NYT
Latest News
August 21, 2025
How Should We Live Together as Citizens of an Aging Society? Watch the latest episode in The Big Question series
In the United States, the aging population has reached a historic milestone: More people are over 65 than under 15. The latest episode of The Big Question series features Hastings senior research scholar Nancy Berlinger exploring the opportunities and challenges of an aging society in conversation with Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky and Hastings Center Fellow Insoo Hyun of the Museum of Science in Boston. The Big Question is a collaboration between The Hastings Center for Bioethics and the Museum of Science. Learn more and watch the episode.
Bioethics Chats: Dorothy Roberts MacArthur Award recipient discusses "trifecta of violations of reproductive justice"
The latest episode in our Bioethics Chats series features Dorothy Roberts, who received a MacArthur “genius award” Fellowship last year for “exposing racial inequities embedded in social service systems and uplifting the experiences of people caught up in them.” Roberts chatted with Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky about the “trifecta of violations of reproductive justice” and what bioethicists and healthcare providers should do. Read the chat and watch a clip.
Hastings in The New York Times From the beginning to the end of life
Male Fertility. An Opinion column on the male fertility crisis cites research by Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky that calls for “incorporating sperm screens into primary care checkups” and makes the case that young men should consider freezing their sperm because sperm count and quality decline after age 40. Read the essay.
Debate Over Defining Death. “As a physician and a neuroethicist who has argued for the rights of people with a severe brain injury, I was appalled and confused by the proposal made by [the authors of a recent New York Times guest essay] to include patients they define as ‘hopelessly comatose’ in a new definition of death,” begins a letter to the editor by Joseph J. Fins of Weill Cornell Medicine who is the chair of the Hastings board of trustees. Read the letter.
Enacting Justice in Community Health Centers Caring for patients who are "chewed up and spit out"
Started in the 1960s with a commitment to justice, the community health center movement emphasized that everyone deserves respectful, quality health care and that addressing social drivers of health is within the remit of health care organizations. Today, federally funded community health centers serve over 32 million people, 90% of whom are low-income. Providers enact a commitment to justice as they both improve access to care and recognize their patients’ humanity in a society where too many of them are, as one clinician put it, “chewed up and spit out,” write Hastings Center associate research scholar Carolyn Neuhaus and Johanna Crane of the Alden March Bioethics Institute in a recent essay. But their continued success and financial viability are not assured, especially with recent cuts to Medicaid. Read the essay.
PRIM&R Annual Conference. Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky will deliver the keynote address. November 7.
Healthcare Leadership Symposium. Hastings Center President Vardit Ravitsky will participate in a fireside chat with the president of SUNY Downstate. November 12.
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