Healing a sick planet, genetic tests for prospective parents, essay contest, predictive testing for mental illness
April 27, 2022
Is It Possible to Have Healthy People on a Sick Planet?
Envisioning an Expanded Mission for Health Care
Climate change will do profound harm to people’s health and it will be a “force multiplier” for the racial, social, and health inequities, said Gary Cohen, president of Health Care Without Harm, in conversation with Hastings Center president Mildred Solomon at the Daniel Callahan Annual lecture last week. Cohen called upon the health care industry to expand its mission from healing individuals to healing the planet. Learn more and watch the virtual event.
Two Warnings to Prospective Parents About Genetic Tests
Hastings Center director of research Josephine Johnston responded to a warning issued by the Food and Drug Administration last week about false-positive results from noninvasive prenatal tests, which assess the likelihood that a fetus has several genetic conditions. The FDA’s safety communication “is a way of doing a little bit of regulation of an area they don’t regulate,” she told MedPage Today. Read the MedPage Today article.
Johnston also responded to a study that cast doubt on the reliability of a standard genetic test used for in vitro fertilization to determine if embryos are viable for implantation. “The study strengthens the argument that [the] tests have been prematurely incorporated into fertility medicine and strongly suggests that these tests will have led patients to discard potentially viable embryos,” she told the New York Times. Read the Times article.
The 2022 David Roscoe Award for an Early-Career Scholar's Essay on Science, Ethics, & Society Nominate an Essay
Artificial intelligence, gene editing, and other powerful new technologies have profound implications for society. How can we reap the benefits, while minimizing harms? The Hastings Center invites nominations for the 2022 David Roscoe Award for an Early-Career Scholar’s Essay on Science, Ethics, and Society. Learn more and nominate an essay.
Should We Try to Predict Which Teens Will Develop Mental Illnesses? Predictive Testing Services Raise Ethical Questions
Testing services targeting young people claim to predict who will develop psychiatric problems. Adolescents in a recent study saw multiple benefits in these testing services, but were concerned about privacy. This finding is among the roundup of news on ethical issues in brain science and genetics in the latest Braingenethics Update, produced by The Hastings Center and Columbia University Medical Center. Read Braingenethics.
Upcoming Events
"Ethical Issues We Have Faced Over the Pandemic and Lessons Learned." A talk by Hastings Center President Mildred Solomon at Yale. May 11.
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