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Workshop: Societal and Ethical Implications and Community Engagement Associated with Microbiome Engineering in the Built Environment

April 22, 2025
The 2025 PreMiEr SEI Symposium is a virtual workshop designed to bring together researchers, engineers, ethicists, and policymakers to examine the societal and ethical dimensions of microbiome engineering in the built environment. Over the course of the afternoon, participants will explore governance frameworks, public perceptions, and strategies for meaningful community...

Comparing Patient and Physician Attitudes About Applications of AI in Healthcare

April 21, 2025
While artificial intelligence appears ready to transform multiple aspects of healthcare, studies examining physician and patient opinions about digital-health tools have been limited. This presentation will explore physician and patient perspectives on the ethical issues raised by potential uses of AI in medicine, focusing on areas where doctor and patient...

Population Genomic Screening: From Biobank Return of Results to a Clinical Screening Pilot

April 2, 2025
Assistant Professor, Genomic Health, Geisinger Co-director, Geisinger MyCode Genomic Screening and Counseling Program Please register to attend. https://go.unc.edu/jsavatt   Currently, identification of individuals with genomic risk remains largely dependent on clinical testing that relies on a personal/family history of disease and, access to specialty care. However, some patients with suggestive...

Table Talk: Graduate Research with Rami Major PhD

February 14, 2025
Space is limited; please RSVP on Heel Life. February’s Table Talk presenter is Rami Major, PhD, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Social Medicine’s Center for Bioethics. Her research is titled “Ethical Considerations of Prenatal Gene Editing in Neurodevelopmental Disease.”

Book Talk: The Occasional Human Sacrifice

February 6, 2025
Carl Elliott was originally trained in medicine before going into philosophy, and his most recent book, The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Medical Experimentation and the Price of Saying No, is about whistleblowing in medical research. Carl grew up in Clover, South Carolina, where his father was a family doctor and his mother...

Stories of Assisted Dying in America: New Narratives for Old Debates

January 31, 2025
How We Die: A Panel Investigating the Ethics of Medical Aid in Dying (MAID) Often discussed as a “good death,” Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) can also be highly contested. For instance, while MAiD may highlight a patient’s autonomy, it can come into conflict with a physician’s oath to do...

Parr Center Ethics Around the Table

January 24, 2025
Lunch will be served and CLE credit will be offered!   Rebecca Walker is a professor in the Philosophy Department at UNC, with a joint appointment in the Department of Social Medicine in the School of Medicine. She uses philosophical and empirical research methods to address questions at the intersection...

Annual Parr|Bioethics Joint Lecture

January 16, 2025
Light refreshments will be served at 6:30. Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Ph.D., is the Cullen Professor of Medical Ethics and Associate Director of the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. She holds a Ph.D. in philosophy, with a specialization in bioethics, from Michigan State University.

NIH Ethics Grand Rounds: The Ethics of Randomized Policy Experiments

November 18, 2024
Presenter: Marco Picchio, PhD, Department of Bioethics, NIH Clinical Center Discussant: Douglas MacKay, PhD, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Faculty, Center For Bioethics, UNC Lecture Summary: Randomized controlled trials are the gold standard for assessing medical interventions. In contrast, randomized controlled trials are rarely used to assess social and...

Prenatal Gene Editing for Neurodevelopmental Disease: Ethical Considerations

November 12, 2024
Lunch will be provided for in-person attendees.   Neurodevelopmental diseases (NDDs) are notoriously difficult to treat because clinical symptoms stem from developmental processes that begin before birth. Prenatal gene editing could fill the treatment gap for NDDS by targeting and permanently correcting the genetic variants that underlie these pathogenic developmental...