Hastings Center president Mildred Solomon discussed disability rights and bioethics, including Covid-related issues, during an interview on “Included: The Disability Equity Podcast.” She began by explaining The Hastings Center’s longstanding work on ethical issues concerning people with disabilities, a commitment that stretches back more than 50 years. She went on to address concerns that crisis triage protocols aimed at allocating scarce health care resources to save the most lives could be biased against people with disabilities. She said that triage protocols can both save lives and protect core values, such as the equal moral worth of all people. She also stressed ethical imperatives to prioritize people with disabilities for Covid vaccination and to work out the logistics of doing so, including arranging transportation to help people get to vaccination centers. Listen to the podcast episode here. Also, read “Covid-19 Crisis Triage—Optimizing Health Outcomes and Disability Rights” by Solomon and Hastings Center fellows Matthew K. Wynia and Lawrence O. Gostin in the New England Journal of Medicine. And learn about “The Art of Flourishing: Conversations on Disability,” The Hastings Center’s events series supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

Josephine Johnston, Hastings director of research, responded to a report that a scientific body will soon recommend lifting an internationally recognized ethical limit on human embryo research. The limit, called the 14-day rule, arose after the birth of the first baby by in-vitro fertilization. “It was a political decision to show the public there is a framework for this research, that we aren’t growing babies in labs,” she said in an interview with MIT Technology Review. The rule was unchallenged until recently, when it became possible to grow embryos for as long as 13 days. Some scientists point to potential benefits of studying embryos for more than 14 days, including improved IVF; Johnston thinks that justifying the rule change is important for maintaining trust in science. Read the MIT Technology Review article.

In an interview with Axios, Hastings Center research scholar Nancy Berlinger discussed ethical questions raised by residents of Des Moines, Iowa, who were eligible for vaccination: Should they go to rural areas where it’s easier to get appointments? She explained that as long as a person is eligible to be vaccinated, accepting an available appointment is ethical—and that there are larger questions about how to make vaccination more accessible for all: Are mismatches between supply and demand in different parts of the state creating barriers to vaccination for people who cannot travel long distances? Can outreach in rural areas be improved?  Read the Axios interview.