Human Genome Editing Event; Animal Robots Documentary; Louisiana's Misguided Medically Futile Unborn Child List; Doctors on Tik Tok
March 10, 2023
Toward Navigating Danger & Promise Together: Editing the Human Genome Joint Us for a Discussion on the International Summit
A just-concluded international summit looked at the state of human genome editing, where the scandal of China’s CRISPR babies was fresh in the minds of many. But attendees also heard of the exciting promise that gene editing therapy holds for sickle cell disease, a condition that touches millions. Can we all have a say in managing this fast-moving technology? How do we weigh the danger against the benefits? Join us on Tuesday, March 14, for an online discussion with critical takeaways from the summit–and next steps for our society. Learn more and register.
AI Deployed to Design 'Animal Robots' New Documentary Explores the Science and Ethical Issues
A documentary for Scientific American examines novel research that uses artificial intelligence to build robots from living cells, work that might one day yield new treatments for birth defects, traumatic injuries, and other human health conditions. In the documentary, Hastings Center research scholar Carolyn P. Neuhaus comments on the ethical and philosophical issues these so-called xenobots raise, including ambiguity about how to describe them. The ambiguity “yields a moral uncertainty and a moral ambiguity. What's going on here? What is it?” and “what do we owe to the creature that we've created?” The documentary premiered last week at the annual meeting of AAAS (Association for the Advancement of Science) in Washington, where Neuhaus participated in a panel discussion. Watch the documentary.
Louisiana's 'Medically Futile' Unborn Child List: Misguided Response to the Post-Dobbs Landscape Multiple Unethical Implictions
Louisiana—a state with sweeping abortion restrictions—issued an emergency declaration last August with a list of fetal diagnoses for which abortions will be permitted. The “List of Conditions that Shall Deem an Unborn Child ‘Medically Futile’” raises medical, ethical, and public health concerns and should be rescinded, conclude the authors of an essay in the Hastings Center Report. The authors support reproductive autonomy “and the goal of urgently and capaciously expanding protected options for pregnant persons,” but “argue that the declaration is a misguided response to the post-Dobbs reproductive landscape and that states seeking to uphold evidence-based health care delivery should learn from its mistake.” Read the essay.
Is Your Doctor on Tik Tok? Ethical Issues May Come into Play
An increasing number of doctors and nurses are posting TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms. While there are potential ethical concerns, like breeching patient confidentiality, many clinicians see themselves to be “humanizing” their profession, said Hastings Center postdoctoral fellow Mercer Gary, in an interview in Leaps.org. “TikTok and Instagram reels have shown health care providers crying after losing a patient or exhausted after a night shift in the emergency department.” Read the article.
Upcoming Events
"Toward Navigating Danger & Promise Together--Editing the Human Genome," March 14.
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