Susan Gilbert
@susangilb.bsky.social
Communications Director, The Hastings Center for Bioethics.
I edit Hastings Bioethics Forum, an online publication of commentary.
I edit Hastings Bioethics Forum, an online publication of commentary.
A powerful message from a physician/bioethicist who lives and works in Ukraine. The photo shows a drone strike on her hospital. www.thehastingscenter.org/bioethics-is...
Bioethics is Not a Luxury in Ukraine : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
The question, Do we still need bioethics? sounds almost absurd in Ukraine. I insist: Not only do we need bioethics; it is vital.
www.thehastingscenter.org
January 21, 2026 at 1:17 AM
A powerful message from a physician/bioethicist who lives and works in Ukraine. The photo shows a drone strike on her hospital. www.thehastingscenter.org/bioethics-is...
The reproductive technologies that are being promoted by the tech-elite #pronatalists are new. The push to have as many babies as possible—and the best babies—is not. @daphmarts.bsky.social and @juliaehbrown.bsky.social explain in Hastings Bioethics Forum. www.thehastingscenter.org/more-and-bet...
More and “Better” Babies: The Dark Side of the Pronatalist Movement : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
There is growing concern that falling fertility rates will lead to economic and demographic catastrophe. The social and political movement known as
www.thehastingscenter.org
January 15, 2026 at 4:27 PM
The reproductive technologies that are being promoted by the tech-elite #pronatalists are new. The push to have as many babies as possible—and the best babies—is not. @daphmarts.bsky.social and @juliaehbrown.bsky.social explain in Hastings Bioethics Forum. www.thehastingscenter.org/more-and-bet...
Reposted by Susan Gilbert
Hospitals and doctors are ignoring RFK Jr.’s new vaccine schedule and relying on pediatricians’ guidance instead
www.statnews.com/2026/01/15/n...
www.statnews.com/2026/01/15/n...
Hospitals and doctors are ignoring RFK Jr.’s new vaccine schedule and relying on pediatricians’ guidance instead
Their decisions underscore a growing divide between federal health authorities and major medical groups.
www.statnews.com
January 15, 2026 at 4:12 PM
Hospitals and doctors are ignoring RFK Jr.’s new vaccine schedule and relying on pediatricians’ guidance instead
www.statnews.com/2026/01/15/n...
www.statnews.com/2026/01/15/n...
www.thehastingscenter.org/the-benign-z... Attention neuroethicists, a TV show for you.
The Benign Zombies of Pluribus : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
Whatever disagreements neuroethicists have, they all presuppose the annoying multiplicity of brains that somehow generate minds. Not so in Vince
www.thehastingscenter.org
December 23, 2025 at 2:20 PM
www.thehastingscenter.org/the-benign-z... Attention neuroethicists, a TV show for you.
www.thehastingscenter.org/your-study-i... The unprecedented reality of NIH terminating studies creates an urgent need for protocols to communicate with and support research volunteers.
Your Study is Terminated: Researchers Need to Prepare Participants : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
At this unprecedented time for medical research, there is an urgent need for protocols to prepare for and communicate the termination of a study to all research stakeholders.
www.thehastingscenter.org
November 20, 2025 at 1:13 AM
www.thehastingscenter.org/your-study-i... The unprecedented reality of NIH terminating studies creates an urgent need for protocols to communicate with and support research volunteers.
www.thehastingscenter.org/what-researc... you would think that research scandals and abuses would draw bioethicists’ attention, but they don’t. Why? @carlelliott.bsky.social explores this question in Hastings Bioethics Forum.
What Research Scandals? Welcome to the Bioethics Memory Hole : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
It is striking how many notorious cases of abuses of human research subjects go almost entirely unmentioned in the bioethics literature.
www.thehastingscenter.org
November 4, 2025 at 5:49 PM
www.thehastingscenter.org/what-researc... you would think that research scandals and abuses would draw bioethicists’ attention, but they don’t. Why? @carlelliott.bsky.social explores this question in Hastings Bioethics Forum.
www.thehastingscenter.org/schoolchildr... With attention focused on misinformation about Tylenol and pregnancy, let’s not lose sight of other “baseless” statements from our leaders that put children’s health at risk.
Schoolchildren Deserve Better : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
One of the Trump administration's latest targets is children's mental health services. Recently, Education Secretary Linda McMahon and Health and Human
www.thehastingscenter.org
September 25, 2025 at 8:00 PM
www.thehastingscenter.org/schoolchildr... With attention focused on misinformation about Tylenol and pregnancy, let’s not lose sight of other “baseless” statements from our leaders that put children’s health at risk.
Reposted by Susan Gilbert
Most troubling part about removing uncomfortable truths from history is the whitewashing that follows. If you disagree, the answer isn’t to erase them,it’s to challenge them w/ thoughtful counterarguments.🤔
NEW HC Bioethics Forum essay by Barron Lerner https://bit.ly/47EEFFN
NEW HC Bioethics Forum essay by Barron Lerner https://bit.ly/47EEFFN
August 19, 2025 at 8:02 PM
Most troubling part about removing uncomfortable truths from history is the whitewashing that follows. If you disagree, the answer isn’t to erase them,it’s to challenge them w/ thoughtful counterarguments.🤔
NEW HC Bioethics Forum essay by Barron Lerner https://bit.ly/47EEFFN
NEW HC Bioethics Forum essay by Barron Lerner https://bit.ly/47EEFFN
Reposted by Susan Gilbert
🎙️ Episode 4 of Bioethics Chats is OUT NOW!
@varditravitsky.bsky.social chats with Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss Professor at UPenn, on the “trifecta of violations of reproductive justice” & what bioethicists & healthcare providers must do to address them. 👩🏾⚖️📚
https://bit.ly/45sYBdn
@varditravitsky.bsky.social chats with Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss Professor at UPenn, on the “trifecta of violations of reproductive justice” & what bioethicists & healthcare providers must do to address them. 👩🏾⚖️📚
https://bit.ly/45sYBdn
August 21, 2025 at 7:07 PM
🎙️ Episode 4 of Bioethics Chats is OUT NOW!
@varditravitsky.bsky.social chats with Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss Professor at UPenn, on the “trifecta of violations of reproductive justice” & what bioethicists & healthcare providers must do to address them. 👩🏾⚖️📚
https://bit.ly/45sYBdn
@varditravitsky.bsky.social chats with Dorothy Roberts, George A. Weiss Professor at UPenn, on the “trifecta of violations of reproductive justice” & what bioethicists & healthcare providers must do to address them. 👩🏾⚖️📚
https://bit.ly/45sYBdn
Health insurance premiums for people with employer-provided coverage have more than quadrupled since 1999. From 2023 to 2024 alone, they rose more than 6% for both individuals and family coverage — a steeper increase than that of wages and overall inflation. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
The Price Increases That Should Cause Americans More Alarm - KFF Health News
The cost of health insurance is rising faster than the price of eggs or gasoline.
kffhealthnews.org
August 22, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Health insurance premiums for people with employer-provided coverage have more than quadrupled since 1999. From 2023 to 2024 alone, they rose more than 6% for both individuals and family coverage — a steeper increase than that of wages and overall inflation. kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
Reposted by Susan Gilbert
The NIH's longstanding commitment to funding research that uncovers and addresses health disparities has not only advanced our understanding of cancer outcomes across different populations but has also led to improvements that benefit all patients.
Experts Advise on How to Study DEI in Cancer
Clinicians acknowledge significant barriers to conducting DEI-related medical research, but they also provide a glimmer of hope, suggesting how to find funding in these uncertain times.
www.medscape.com
August 22, 2025 at 2:02 PM
The NIH's longstanding commitment to funding research that uncovers and addresses health disparities has not only advanced our understanding of cancer outcomes across different populations but has also led to improvements that benefit all patients.
www.thehastingscenter.org/ethical-cons... The first clinical trial involving pig kidney transplants has been approved. There are many ethical issues. Read recommendations on how to address them. New in Hastings Bioethics Forum
Ethical Considerations for First-In-Human Pig Kidney Xenotransplant Clinical Trials : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
The first clinical trial transplanting gene-edited pig kidneys into humans could start this year. They raise important ethical issues.
www.thehastingscenter.org
August 1, 2025 at 2:57 PM
www.thehastingscenter.org/ethical-cons... The first clinical trial involving pig kidney transplants has been approved. There are many ethical issues. Read recommendations on how to address them. New in Hastings Bioethics Forum
undark.org/2025/07/21/a... Generating some kinds of humor is easier for AI than driving a car safely. Still, much of AI-generated comedy is mediocre. Interesting article by Jyoti Madhusoodanan.
AI Can Make You Laugh. But Can It Ever Be Truly Humorous?
As people turn to AI for therapy and companionship, some say the models still need to learn the nuances of human humor.
undark.org
July 25, 2025 at 6:37 PM
undark.org/2025/07/21/a... Generating some kinds of humor is easier for AI than driving a car safely. Still, much of AI-generated comedy is mediocre. Interesting article by Jyoti Madhusoodanan.
www.thehastingscenter.org/collecting-m... The latest expansion in the use of DNA samples for law enforcement raises ethical and legal concerns. James Hazel explains.
Collecting Migrant Children’s DNA: A Troubling, but Predictable, Trend in the U.S. : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
Recent reports reveal that the U.S. government is systematically collecting DNA from migrant children, some as young as 4 years old, and storing it
www.thehastingscenter.org
July 7, 2025 at 11:47 PM
www.thehastingscenter.org/collecting-m... The latest expansion in the use of DNA samples for law enforcement raises ethical and legal concerns. James Hazel explains.
Can we be sure that the research that is to this achievement would be possible now? Jonathan Moreno’s latest in Hastings Bioethics Forum www.thehastingscenter.org/sweet-vindic...
Sweet Vindication for Stem Cell Research, and American Science : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
A small group of people with a severe form of type 1 diabetes have been successfully treated with pancreatic cells derived from human embryonic stem cells. This moment should not pass without recognit...
www.thehastingscenter.org
July 3, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Can we be sure that the research that is to this achievement would be possible now? Jonathan Moreno’s latest in Hastings Bioethics Forum www.thehastingscenter.org/sweet-vindic...
Beautiful piece. Read with a box of tissues. www.thehastingscenter.org/a-clinical-e...
A Clinical Ethicist Reflects on the Life and Death of a Beloved Pet : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
In my role as a clinical ethicist, I regularly explore the risks and benefits of proposed treatments, especially for terminal diseases. But for Sheba this moral question felt unique.
www.thehastingscenter.org
June 10, 2025 at 12:25 AM
Beautiful piece. Read with a box of tissues. www.thehastingscenter.org/a-clinical-e...
Reposted by Susan Gilbert
More needs to be made of the distinction between trust and trustworthiness. Lower levels of trust in vaccines and ACIP are more likely a function of attempts to actively undermine trust from the likes of RFK Jr and company, not the trustworthiness of ACIP.
This is the big one: Kennedy is firing the entire #ACIP in a move he says is needed to restore confidence in vaccines.
"It scares me to think of what’s ahead,” Mike Osterholm of CIDRAP told me. www.statnews.com/2025/06/09/r...
"It scares me to think of what’s ahead,” Mike Osterholm of CIDRAP told me. www.statnews.com/2025/06/09/r...
Health secretary RFK Jr. abruptly fires CDC vaccine advisory panel
Health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has taken the extraordinary step of firing the expert panel that advises the CDC.
www.statnews.com
June 9, 2025 at 11:46 PM
More needs to be made of the distinction between trust and trustworthiness. Lower levels of trust in vaccines and ACIP are more likely a function of attempts to actively undermine trust from the likes of RFK Jr and company, not the trustworthiness of ACIP.
www.thehastingscenter.org/civil-death-... Making comparisons with the Nazis and their rise to autocracy is tricky, but we must learn from history.
Civil Death: Unethical in 1933 and Today : The Hastings Center for Bioethics
The rhyme of history is disturbing, especially when played out by the professionals whom we rely on for ethical leadership, not for unethical manipulation of the law.
cwww.thehastingscenter.org
May 31, 2025 at 5:00 PM
www.thehastingscenter.org/civil-death-... Making comparisons with the Nazis and their rise to autocracy is tricky, but we must learn from history.
Reposted by Susan Gilbert
🚨 Hastings in the spotlight! 🚨
HC President Vardit Ravitsky featured on 60 Minutes, where she discusses the growing trend of #eggfreezing and the opportunities and risks it raises about pausing the biological clock. 🧬⏳
Watch: cbsn.ws/3Z1owoI
#Bioethics
HC President Vardit Ravitsky featured on 60 Minutes, where she discusses the growing trend of #eggfreezing and the opportunities and risks it raises about pausing the biological clock. 🧬⏳
Watch: cbsn.ws/3Z1owoI
#Bioethics
May 8, 2025 at 4:37 PM
🚨 Hastings in the spotlight! 🚨
HC President Vardit Ravitsky featured on 60 Minutes, where she discusses the growing trend of #eggfreezing and the opportunities and risks it raises about pausing the biological clock. 🧬⏳
Watch: cbsn.ws/3Z1owoI
#Bioethics
HC President Vardit Ravitsky featured on 60 Minutes, where she discusses the growing trend of #eggfreezing and the opportunities and risks it raises about pausing the biological clock. 🧬⏳
Watch: cbsn.ws/3Z1owoI
#Bioethics
Latest in Hastings Bioethics Forum by RobertKlitzman.bsky.social www.thehastingscenter.org/to-make-amer...
To Make America Healthy Again, Stop Divesting from Science
Proposed cuts to federal research funding and attacks on universities imperil the longstanding global leadership of the United States in scientific and medical discoveries and raise profound bioethica...
www.thehastingscenter.org
May 9, 2025 at 1:15 AM
Latest in Hastings Bioethics Forum by RobertKlitzman.bsky.social www.thehastingscenter.org/to-make-amer...
Will bioethics continue to exist and in what form? It’s under pressure in the US. www.thehastingscenter.org/bioethics-ba...
Bioethics: Back to the USSR?
Will bioethics continue to exist and in what form? In the United States, where the discipline is most developed and institutionalized, it is under pressure.
www.thehastingscenter.org
April 30, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Will bioethics continue to exist and in what form? It’s under pressure in the US. www.thehastingscenter.org/bioethics-ba...
Reposted by Susan Gilbert
Bringing back extinct Animals: my essay via @hastingscenter.bsky.social www.thehastingscenter.org/de-extinctio...
De-extinction is Here. Now What?
Colossal Biosciences, a biotechnology company, announced that it has achieved a scientific first -- bringing back an extinct animal: the dire wolf. Crucial questions emerge about scientific hubris, pl...
www.thehastingscenter.org
April 11, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Bringing back extinct Animals: my essay via @hastingscenter.bsky.social www.thehastingscenter.org/de-extinctio...
Now that 23andme has filed for bankruptcy, here’s what to know about protecting your data. www.thehastingscenter.org/what-23andme...
What 23andMe Owes its Users
With concern about its stability, 23andMe should consider what information and protection it owes its users. So should other DTC genetic testing companies.
www.thehastingscenter.org
March 30, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Now that 23andme has filed for bankruptcy, here’s what to know about protecting your data. www.thehastingscenter.org/what-23andme...
Reposted by Susan Gilbert
Prescription drug prices have skyrocketed in the U.S., more so than in other wealthy countries! 💊 💰 What prices can be ethically justified? 💭 New chapter in our Bioethics Briefings. READ, bit.ly/41Xyt7i
#HastingsCenter #Bioethics #DrugPricing #Healthcare
#HastingsCenter #Bioethics #DrugPricing #Healthcare
March 17, 2025 at 4:44 PM
Prescription drug prices have skyrocketed in the U.S., more so than in other wealthy countries! 💊 💰 What prices can be ethically justified? 💭 New chapter in our Bioethics Briefings. READ, bit.ly/41Xyt7i
#HastingsCenter #Bioethics #DrugPricing #Healthcare
#HastingsCenter #Bioethics #DrugPricing #Healthcare
www.thehastingscenter.org/heavy-metal-... Can listening to heavy metal, or any music, make bioethicists better at what they do? This bioethicist-drummer thinks so.
Heavy Metal Bioethics
I had never thought much about Alzheimer’s disease, other than to hope that I never suffer from it. But after attending a heavy metal concert, that condition began to weigh on my heart and mind. The s...
www.thehastingscenter.org
March 18, 2025 at 12:59 AM
www.thehastingscenter.org/heavy-metal-... Can listening to heavy metal, or any music, make bioethicists better at what they do? This bioethicist-drummer thinks so.