Genetics and Responsibility: More Complicated Than We Thought
Takeaways from Recent Symposium
Has the “geneticization thesis” come to pass? Proposed 30 years ago, it stated that genetic science would lead to many aspects of identity, health, and everyday life being explained mainly in genetic terms, disregarding social, economic, historical, and political determinants. At a recent virtual symposium, “we found a far more complex picture than the one imagined in early interpretations of the geneticization thesis,” write Hastings Center senior research scholar Erik Parens and Hastings Center fellow Paul Appelbaum, of Columbia University, who organized the event. It was sponsored by the Center for Research on Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of Psychiatric, Neurologic & Behavioral Genetics at Columbia, in collaboration with The Hastings Center. “Yes, genetic information can have impacts on individuals—in some cases significant ones. But individuals also can actively—and strategically—use genetic information to advance their own purposes." Learn more and watch the symposium.
In the Media: Sports Stars Should Say They're Vaccinated
Sports stars, who are often asked about their heath, are well placed to support public understanding of Covid-19 vaccines, said Hastings Center research scholar Nancy Berlinger in an interview with Kaiser Health News. “In the worst days of HIV-AIDS, the fact that Magic Johnson was willing to talk about being HIV-positive changed public conversation in this country,” she said. “Not everyone is able to step into that role.” Read the article.
An article co-authored by Berlinger won one of the 2021 Catholic Press Awards. “Moving the Needle: How Hospital-Based Research Expanded Medicaid Coverage for Undocumented Immigrants in Colorado” was written with Lilia Cervantes, a physician at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and published in Health Progress. Read the article.
Nine Steps to End Covid and Prevent the Next Pandemic
Hastings Center fellow Lawrence O. Gostin, University Professor and Director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, proposed nine steps to end Covid and prevent the next pandemic in an article in JAMA. His recommendations follow a momentous meeting of the World Health Assembly, which plans to hold a special session on a new pandemic treaty. Professor Gostin’s wide-ranging recommendations include preventing diseases from spreading from animals to humans, elevating pandemic response to high political levels, embedding equity into planning and response, suspending intellectual property rights and transfer technologies, and supporting health workers. Read the article. Gostin, who has argued that mandates and proof of vaccination are likely to enhance coverage and do so equitably, was Mildred Solomon’s guest on The Hastings Center’s most recent webinar, “Vaccine Mandates and Passports: Are They Legal and Ethical?” Watch the webinar.
From Hastings Bioethics Forum: Bad Day for Science
Two essays by Hastings Center fellows responded to the controversial approval of a new drug for Alzheimer’s disease. Dena S. Davis recalls her mother’s 10-year decline with dementia and writes, “I’m pretty sure I would say no” to the drug, citing a lack of evidence that it works, serious side effects, and the very high cost. Read “Would I Give Aducanumab to My Mother?”.
Tia Powell writes that the FDA’s approval of the drug “wounds the beating heart of scientific integrity that should stand at its core. This is our real loss—it’s not just the error in approving aducanumab, nor even the unbelievable cost of that mistake. It is that the FDA has lost the right to say that its crucial decisions, on which so much depend, are based on science, and not wishful thinking.” Powell is the author of Dementia Reimagined: Building a Life of Joy and Dignity from Beginning to End. Read “What a Bad Day Science Had”.
Upcoming Events
"At the Crossroads of Ethics, Law, Medicine, and Anthropology." Hastings Center research scholar Nancy Berlinger will moderate a Massachusetts General Hospital ethics forum that explores our obligations to non-citizens at the southwest U.S. border through ethical, legal, medical, and anthropological lenses. June 23, 6 pm EST.
"Medical Interfaces with Emotion AI: Hermeneutical Injustice in Automated Pain Assessment." Hastings Center project manager and research assistant Isabel Bolo will speak at the CEPE/IACAP Joint Conference 2021: The Philosophy and Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. July 7, 6 am EST.
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