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Stuart Rennie & Keymanthri Moodley were Guest Editors for the South African Journal of Science for the special issue on Big Data and AI in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to Stuart and Keymanthri, there are several bioethics-related articles from the … Continued

PROMPT Bioethics Study Team, Ann Dennis, MD, MS, Suzanne Day, PhD, MA; Stuart Rennie, PhD; and Kristen Sullivan, PhD. The Dennis Research Group in the School of Medicine has released a new white paper titled, “Revitalizing Community Engagement in the … Continued

The Bioethicists of tomorrow are being reached today! Members of the UNC Center for Bioethics in conjunction with the undergraduate students of the UNC Bioethics Society recently held two student-centric events that cultivated academic interest in bioethics studies. On April … Continued

Mara Buchbinder, PhD was interviewed for Joe Killian’s article for The Progressive Pulse “More important than ever” UNC Panel talks faith and abortion. Dr. Buchbinder was the moderator for the final spring installment of the Abbey Speaker Series to discuss the … Continued

Suicide is a leading cause of death globally and the rate of suicide is rising in the Americas more than any other region of the world. Suicide prevention legislation and policies are often proposed as a way reduce (or even … Continued

Members of the PRomoting Equity for Pregnant Adolescents in Research (PREPARE) team recently returned from a trip to Botswana and Malawi. This study is led by Principal Investigators (PI) Anne Lyerly, MD, MA, and Kristen Sullivan, PhD, MSW, MBA, of … Continued

Anne Lyerly, MD was interviewed by NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe to talk about how hospital ethics boards are being invoked when a patient requires a medical exception to an abortion ban.

The UNC Provost’s Office has awarded Jill Fisher a Senior Faculty Research and Scholarly Leave for the Fall Semester of 2023. Fisher will work on writing a book manuscript from her research on pediatric food allergy clinical trials. These leaves … Continued

Annie Lyerly has been elected as a new fellow of the Hastings Center.  Hastings Center fellows are a group of more than 200 individuals of outstanding accomplishment whose work has informed scholarship and public understanding of complex ethical issues in … Continued

A project led by Mara Buchbinder, PhD, released a set of 12 recommendations for hospitals and health care institutions addresses moral stress in clinical practice and the ways that it impedes good care.

Watch the webinar “Pregnant and Lactating Populations in Research: How Leaving These Populations Out Leaves Them Behind,” to hear about how exclusion of pregnant and lactating populations in research has resulted in an inability to support them – and what … Continued

UNC Chapel Hill’s Program for Public Discourse will begin 2023 with public discussions of affirmative action in university admissions and abortion – two divisive social issues, one now before the Supreme Court and the other a renewed battleground in state … Continued

If you missed the Health Policy & Bioethics Consortium, “Treating Healthy Clinical Trial Participants Fairly,” it is available on The Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics YouTube channel. The consortium was moderated by Benjamin Silverman, MD, with discussants Holly Fernandez … Continued

Mary Kaufmann and Kelsey Rich have been selected as the new student leaders for the School of Medicine’s  Clinical Ethics Discussion Group This position also entails appointment to the UNC Hospital Ethics Committee. Outgoing leaders are Konan Beke and Celia Mizelle. … Continued

Mara Buchbinder, PhD, recently sat down with the GeriPal podcast for a discussion on two of the most controversial and hotly debated topics in bioethics: assisted dying and abortion. Dr. Buchbinder, along with Robert Brody, MD, and researcher Lori Freedman, … Continued

Congratulations to Annie Lyerly, who was just elected to the Johns Hopkins Society of Scholars, a wonderful honor and recognition of her immense scholarly contributions to medical ethics, women’s health, and reproductive medicine.

Rebecca L. Walker was part of the latest installment of the Parr Center’s Ethical Dilemma series with TED-Ed, this time on the value of a life with bioethicist.

Dr. Aurora M Washington recently joined UNC-CH Social Medicine department as a postdoctoral fellow in clinical ethics and the ethical, legal and social implications of precision medicine. Aurora earned her B.S in Biology from Tougaloo College where she was a … Continued

Margaret Waltz, PhD, of the UNC Department of Social Medicine and the UNC Center for Bioethics, was recently honored with the School of Medicine Dean’s Performance Award. The award is given out every year to individuals within the UNC School … Continued

Waltz developed and implemented multiple innovative methodologies with the goal of translating research results to improving patient care and medical trainee education. First, Waltz created a method using audio recordings to analyze patient and provider communication during pediatric genetics and … Continued

The UNC Center for Bioethics is proud to launch a new ambassadorship between the Center and the undergraduate students of UNC-Chapel Hill. The new Bioethics Student Liaison position has been created to make the student population more aware of the … Continued

Elena Conis, PhD, MS, MJ, is a writer and historian of medicine, public health, and the environment at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Her current research focuses on scientific controversies, science denial, and the … Continued

The project is entitled Utilizing a Lupus Clinical Trials Network to Advance Diversity and Representation in Clinical Trials: Perspectives, Preferences, and Unmet Needs of Patients, Providers, and Stakeholder Agencies. The research team will leverage novel data sources to advance evidence … Continued

UNC Center for Bioethics core faculty member Jean Cadigan, Ph.D., along with a multidisciplinary team of researchers from across the country, was recently awarded an R01 grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute at NIH entitled, Beyond the Medical: … Continued

UNC Center for Bioethics is pleased to see our core faculty member Jill Fisher, Ph.D., has been awarded the 2022 Donald W. Light Award for Applied or Public Practice of Medical Sociology for her book Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and … Continued

The Center for Bioethics will host The 2022 Merrimon Lecture Series. Our first speaker is Elena Conis, Ph.D. on September 9th. The 45th Merrimon Lecture speaker is Heidi J. Larson, Ph.D. will be on September 14th. Finally, Perri Klass, M.D. … Continued

Jill Fisher explains how clinical drug trials attract disproportionate participation by racial and ethnic minorities who then disproportionately assume risks of participating in these trials, often just to stay financially afloat.  

The Center appreciates the Foundation’s support in hosting a two-day event in October 2022. The event focuses on issues related to culture, language, and health care. The event includes 2 lectures (hybrid) under our Clinical Ethics Grand Rounds series. In … Continued

I was fortunate to have a post-tenure research leave during the spring 2022 semester. I used the time away from teaching and service to complete a few projects which had been slowed by the pandemic, including a paper with Ali … Continued

Hadas is a Research Project Manager for the Center for Bioethics for PRomoting Equity for Pregnant Adolescents in REsearch (PREPARE; aka PHASES Adolescence) and Framework for Advances in Reprogenomics Ethics & Regulation (FAIRER). She is an MPH graduate of Global … Continued

Save the date! On March 29 Tar Heels around the world are going to give back and pay it forward. Join us for #GiveUNC and help support the causes that make Carolina a place like no other.   Click here … Continued

Joint Postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical Ethics and the ELSI of Precision Medicine   Call for Applications The University of North Carolina (UNC) Center for Genomics and Society (CGS) and the Center for Bioethics (C:B), together with the Program for Precision … Continued

Jill Fisher chaired the NIH Continuous Special Emphasis Panel on Societal and Ethical Issues in Research (SEIR) study section in June and December 2021 and will chair the March 2022 meeting. The Continuous Special Emphasis Panel on Societal and Ethical … Continued

Rebecca L. Walker, PhD and Jill A. Fisher, PhD from the Department of Social Medicine have published a new survey that identifies how researchers using vertebrate animals viewed issues of significance for translational science. Rebecca L. Walker, PhD, at left, … Continued

The UNC Provost’s Office has awarded Eric Juengst a Kenan Foundation-supported university sabbatical for the Spring Semester of 2022. Juengst will pursue research exploring the revival of scientific interest in “good” human genes, by examining different forms of beneficial genomic … Continued

The Hastings Center recently announced the election of 24 new fellows, which include Jill A. Fisher, PhD and Rebecca L. Walker, PhD in the UNC Department of Social Medicine. The Hastings Center is pleased to announce the election of 24 … Continued

In Paul Thacker’s article for BMJ Investigation “Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer’s vaccine trial,” he outlined poor practices uncovered by a whistleblower at a research company that was contracted to conduct Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine trial. In … Continued

Reece Carter and Matt Washko have been selected as the new student leaders for the School of Medicine’s  Clinical Ethics Discussion Group This position also entails appointment to the UNC Hospital Ethics Committee. Outgoing leaders are Konan Beke and Celia Mizelle. … Continued

Annie Lyerly and Kristen Sullivan have been awarded an R01 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) to develop empirically informed guidance for conducting ethically responsible HIV/co-infections research with pregnant adolescents.  Pregnant adolescents face synergistic challenges in … Continued

Mara Buchbinder has launched the Study to Examine Physicians’ Pandemic Stress (STEPPS) with funding from the Greenwall Foundation and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified ongoing stress, overwork, and disillusionment among the healthcare … Continued

The Research for Ethical Data Science in Southern Africa (REDSSA) project has the overall aims of producing new knowledge regarding the ethical, legal and social implications (ELSI) of conducting data science research to develop evidence-based, context specific guidance for the … Continued

Jill Fisher has recently been awarded a 3-year grant from the National Science Foundation that is focused on university hiring practices for and job market experiences of dual-career academics. With long-time research collaborator Prof. Torin Monahan, this Co-PI project will … Continued

With funding from the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Dr. Jill Fisher is conducting a research study on pediatric clinical trials for food allergies, focusing primarily on peanut allergy. Using ethnographic research methods, the project investigates the … Continued

Professor Jill A. Fisher’s book, Adverse Events Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals has been awarded the prestigious Robert K. Merton Book Award. The award, given by the Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section of the American Sociological Association. … Continued

Rohit Jaswaney is an intern in the UNC Pediatric Residency Program. He is a graduate of  New York Medical College. Rohit has been a research collaborator with UNC’s Center for Bioethics and the Department of Social Medicine since the summer … Continued

2020 was a strange summer to start medical school. In order to help incoming students adjust, meet their peers, and learn about UNC School of Medicine, rising MS2 students created “Summer Seminars” based on a wide variety of topics. After … Continued

Dr. Jost was one of five residents selected to receive the 2021 Cefalo House Officer Awards   The Robert C. Cefalo, MD, House Officer Award recognizes members of the Hospitals’ House staff for exemplary service to patients and families, professional … Continued

Arlene M. Davis, JD, associate professor in the UNC Department of Social Medicine and director of the Clinical Ethics Service at UNC Hospitals, has been named director of the UNC Center for Bioethics, effective July 1. “I look forward to … Continued

I am happy to announce that after 11 years as Director of the UNC Center for Bioethics, I am turning over that leadership role to Arlene Davis, RN, JD, effective July 1, 2021. It has been immensely fulfilling to oversee … Continued

Doug Makay was interviewed by Logan Ward for the February 23rd issue of UNC’s The Well on “The Pros and Cons of Universal Basic Income.” The idea of governments giving residents no-strings-attached cash payments is picking up steam, due in … Continued

Clinical Ethics Discussion Group is hosting an Ethics Essay Writing Workshop on February 18th, 12:00 – 1:00 pm. If you would like to attend please email: Konan Beke konan_beke@med.unc.edu  Celia Mizelle cecelia_mizelle@med.unc.edu

Rohit Jaswaney is a member of a UNC research team composed of Jean Cadigan, Arlene Davis, Izzy Brassfield, and Bex Forcier from the Center for Bioethics, as well as Maggie Waltz, Dept of Social Medicine, and Benny Joyner, Department of … Continued

Konan Beke and Celia Mizelle have been selected as the new student leaders for the School of Medicine’s  Clinical Ethics Discussion Group This position also entails appointment to the UNC Hospital Ethics Committee. Outgoing leaders are Tyler Clay and Mark Baumgarten. … Continued

Health, Bioethics Experts and Advocates Release a Call to Action to the HIV/Co-infections Research Community: “We must work together to give pregnant women the evidence base they deserve.” New Report Lays out Recommendations for Including Pregnant Women in Research on … Continued

The increasing pace and international diffusion of developments in human genome editing research have prompted ongoing efforts to develop responsible governance for such research. One point of broad agreement across these efforts is that human genome editing research should prioritize … Continued

Ethical Issues in Caring for the Underserved: The Vulnerable, Marginalized, and Forgotten September 20, 2019 co-sponsored by the Center for Bioethics, ECU Brody School of Medicince, CENN, Eastern AHEC and UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy

Sara Meyers and Lisa Michelson have been selected as the new student leaders for the School of Medicine’s  Clinical Ethics Discussion Group This position also entails appointment to the UNC Hospital Ethics Committee. Outgoing leaders are Tyler Clay and Mark Baumgarten. … Continued

Congratulations to Center for Bioethics’s Jean Cadigan, Elana Jaffe, Eric Juengst, Anne Lyerly and Social Medicine’s Gail Henderson, Karen Meagher, and Tonia Poteat. The Oxford Handbook of Public Health Ethics is a prestigious international reference collection that publishes reviews of ethical … Continued

On April 2nd student groups from CEDG and Cardiology had a discussion about how the historical development of the artificial heart and other means of mechanical circulatory support (MCS) inform contemporary practice and of the ethical issues that follow from … Continued

Eric Juengst was a featured expert on the potential pitfalls of gene editing in The New York Time’s article  “One Day There May Be a Drug to Turbocharge the Brain. Who Should Get It?” by Carl Zimmer.

“Beyond Our Beginnings:  50 Years of Bioethics”. We are hosting it at the Mews location at the  Graylyn International Conference Center In recognition of the Hastings Center’s 50th anniversary, this conference surveys the past, present, and future of bioethics scholarship, … Continued

Rethinking Bed Rest For Pregnancy “The bottom line is that there’s never been any proven benefit of bed rest,” says Dr. Anne Drapkin Lyerly, an OB-GYN and professor of bioethics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Lyerly … Continued

HEC Members Rimma Osipov, Sara Scarlet, and Gary Winzelberg participated in the 1st Annual UNC Story Slam. Story Slam began as a wellness event sponsored by the Annals of Internal Medicine at the annual meeting for the American College of Physicians. … Continued

On October 16th our 4 students taking the Clinical Ethics MS4 Elective presented their final projects. These projects are intended to become resources for the HEC and reflect the students’ interests as they prepare for residency next year. The Presentation … Continued

Registration for the workshop will open in early 2019.  

Mark Baumgarten and Tyler Clay will join the Clinical Ethics Discussion Group as student leaders, and the Hospital Ethics Committee as student members, in January 2019. Center for Bioethics faculty members Arlene Davis and Eric Juengst are advisors to the student … Continued

“Government Policy Experiments and the Ethics of Randomization” November 8–9, 2018 A Conference of Applied Ethics and Critical Social Sciences Carleton University Ottawa, Canada The Public Issues and Public Reason (PIPR) conference is a multidisciplinary conference at which graduate students from … Continued

The UNC Center for Bioethics would like to welcome our new Visiting Scholar from the University of Malaga, Pablo Garcia Barranquero. He will be with us from May 3 – July 31, 2018, working with Eric Juengst on conceptual issues in longevity … Continued

Congratulation to  Mara Buchbinder on winning the UNC Hettleman prize! Please join us for Mara’s presentation of her Hettleman Lecture at 1:00pm on Tuesday, May 1st in the Tate Turner Kuralt auditorium, with reception following. We hope to see you there! Hettleman … Continued

Physician-Assisted Death: Scanning the Landscape and Potential Approaches– A Workshop February 12–13, 2018 National Academy of Sciences Building 2101 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC This National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine workshop will explore the evidence base and research … Continued

The UNC Center for Bioethics would like to welcome our new Visiting Scholar from the University of Zurich, Institute for Bioethics, Matthias Eggel. Dr. Eggel will be with us from January 16 – March 10, 2018. Currently, Dr. Eggel is … Continued

The UNC Center for Bioethics would like to welcome our new Center Coordinator, Brandy Elsenrath, starting with us on January 8. Brandy started working at UNC-CH in 1999. She has held positions within the UNC School of Medicine, UNC Property … Continued

A new clinical ethics elective joins the TEC Individualization Phase curriculum this spring. It offers medical students an opportunity to focus their interests in clinical ethics on a particular practice area, using mentorship, scholarly readings, and practical experience with the hospital ethics committee … Continued

The Durham County Board of Commissioners and the state of North Carolina officially proclaimed December 14, 2017 as HIV Cure Research Day. This is the second year celebrating the official proclamation of HIV Cure Research Day. Dr. Allison Mathews, founder … Continued

Harvard Law Bill of Health Blog Margaret Waltz, PhD R. Jean Cadigan, PhD Anya E. R. Prince, JD, MPP Debra Skinner, PhD Gail E. Henderson, PhD Age is an important consideration in medical screening, but calls for population based preventive … Continued

The Journal of Things We Like A lot (JOTWELL), a compendium of law review articles designed to select and recognize the best recent academic legal literature, has honored former C:B trainee Anya Prince and C:B faculty member Arlene Davis by … Continued

Eric Juengst participated in two workshops on behalf of the ELSI 2.0 International Collaboratory for Genomics and Society Research in Kyoto, to discuss cross-cultural perspectives on clinical genomic sequencing, research data-sharing, and dynamic consent, with colleagues from Japan, Australia, Singapore, … Continued

In a recent trip to Kenya, Professor Stuart Rennie visited the capital city of Nairobi with the purpose of participating in and presenting a paper at the 2nd Annual Kenya Bioethics Society conference. The paper was entitled ‘Perceptions of benefit among … Continued

In November 2017, the Pregnancy and HIV/AIDS: Seeking Equitable Study (PHASES) project convened an international workshop in Bangkok, Thailand to address ethical issues in the inclusion of pregnant woman in HIV/AIDS research. This one-day series facilitated sessions and discussions in … Continued

Kelly Olsen and Austin Bath will join the Clinical Ethics Discussion Group as student leaders, and Hospital Ethics Committee as student members, in January 2018. Center for Bioethics faculty members Arlene Davis and Eric Juengst are advisors to the student group … Continued

On September 18-21, 2017, the C:B faculty decamped to Emerald Isle,  NC,  for three days of intellectual engagement with each other’s work in progress.   Participants submitted manuscripts in advance and, after a “reading day” on Thursday, spent Friday and Saturday … Continued

The Center was honored to host Wylie Burke, MD, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor and former Chair of the University of Washington Department of  Bioethics and Humanities, as our 2017 Merrimon Lecturer,  the School of Medicine’s oldest and most prestigious endowed lectureship.,  … Continued

UNC C:B trainees and former fellows were ubiquitous at the 19th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities in Kansas City on Oct. 18-22! Their contributions included: Elana Jaffe, BA participated in a “Forging a New Paradigm for Public Health Emergency Research that Includes Pregnant … Continued

This semester UNC Center for Bioethics faculty members Stuart Rennie, Jill Fisher, Mara Buchbinder, and Eric Juengst are all teaching Advanced Seminars in the Humanities and Social Sciences for MS2 students in the UNC School of Medicine. These seminars offer … Continued

Four highly promising Carolina faculty members in diverse fields have been awarded the Philip and Ruth Hettleman Prizes for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty. The recipients, who were recognized at the Sept. 8 Faculty Council meeting, are: Mara … Continued

Comparative Research Ethics and Policy for Phase I Trials Principal Investigators: Jill A. Fisher and Rebecca L. Walker This project addresses the need for a novel evidence-based approach to the protection of Phase I healthy volunteers. Phase I clinical trials test … Continued

“What I have in mind may be briefly expressed. To give to medical students and others interested an insight in the history, traditions, philosophy and ethics of medicine. To help restore, in some degree, a sense of responsibility to medicine’s … Continued

Drew Cutshaw and Keren Eyal, second year medical students who are members of the Hospital Ethics Committee and leaders of the Clinical Ethics Discussion Group, launched a new academic year for CEDG at the 2017 Student Activities Fair. More than … Continued

The Stellenbosch Bioethics Leadership Program has selected it’s first trainees. Dr Geremew T. Tsegaye has a doctoral degree in medicine (MD). He specialized in public health (MPH) and bioethics (EMMB) and advance Research Ethics. Dr Theresa Burgess started her career … Continued

Despite the high social value of adolescent HIV prevention research in sub-Saharan Africa, investigators are reluctant to involve adolescents in studies with HIV testing and disclosure of results because of ethical concerns about the risks of their participation. This study … Continued

Izzy Brassfield is a student in UNC’s MD-PhD program. She completed her PhD in Philosophy in May of 2020. Her dissertation work focused on giving an account of conscience as a mental process, understanding its role in our moral psychology, … Continued

We are proud to announce that Sara Scarlet, MD a fourth year UNC general surgery resident who has joined the Center for Bioethics for a year-long practicum experience, has been awarded the American College of Surgeons Surgical Ethics Fellowship for … Continued

Under the co-leadership of C:B Associate Director Annie Lyerly, the Welcome Trust-funded PREVENT (Pregnancy Research Ethics for Vaccines, Epidemics and New Technologies) has released ethical guidelines for investigators conducting ZIKA research with pregnant women The inclusion of pregnant women in Zika virus vaccine … Continued

The Center’s long-standing collaboration with the Centre for Medical Ethics and Law at University of Stellenbosch, Capetown, South Africa has been awarded a D43 grant from the NIH Fogarty International Center to establish the first ever African doctoral program on research … Continued

Center faculty Arlene Davis and Jean Cadigan, in a collaboration with Benny Joyner from the Department of Pediatrics, have won a “Campus Innovation Award” from the NC Area Health Education Centers to fund a new project entitled “Using Simulation to … Continued

Jean Cadigan, PhD, a medical anthropologist in the UNC Department of Social Medicine, has been appointed as the tenth member of the Center’s Core Faculty,  in recognition of her sustained involvement in Center research projects,  teaching efforts, and consultation services.

As part of the third annual “Building Bridges” session between the European Society for Human Genetics and the American Society for Human Genetics, Juengst presented a lecture entitled “From Medical Genetics to Applied Genomics: Implications for Human Geneticists’ Core Goals … Continued

The 2016 UNC Merrimon Lecture on “Striking the Balance: Patient Care, Activism, and Public Service in the Health Professions” was delivered on Sep 20 by Nicole Lurie,  MD, and the 2016 UNC Health and Human Rights Lecture was given Gopal Sreenivasan. … Continued