Hannah Arendt in St. Peter ’s Square

Neither one of us expected to be talking about Hannah Arendt at the Vatican. We had been invited to give talks at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on the scientific and ethical challenges posed by personalized medicine. Walking across the cobblestones of St. Peter’s Square we began to discuss how society regulates biomedical research. Are institutional review boards capable of dealing with innovations like personalized medicine? Are they too bound by regulations? Can they ask larger questions of meaning when simply following the rules won't suffice? And most worrisome, has their bureaucratic function caused them to mistake regulatory compliance for ethical reflection? The post Hannah Arendt in St. Peter’s Square appeared first on The Hastings Center.
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Tags: Ethics Health Care Clinical Trials and Human Subjects Research Emerging Biotechnology gene editing Hastings Bioethics Forum syndicated Source Type: blogs