The Petrie-Flom Center hosted an intensive training on issues in psychedelics-related law, medicine, research, and policy on July 14-15, 2025. With nine sessions, 25 instructors, and 60 participants, the conference emphasized lateral learning, in-depth conversation, and a complex picture of the psychedelic landscape today. Made possible by a generous gift from the Gracias Family Foundation, Psychedelics…
Conference Description The Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School is pleased to announce our 2025 annual conference: “Law, Health Care, and the Aging Brain and Body.” This year’s conference is organized by the Petrie-Flom Center in collaboration with Nina A. Kohn, the David M. Levy Professor of Law…
The range of adverse mental health effects resulting from climate change include triggering or exacerbating anxiety, depression, grief, and suicide. Natural phenomena from heatwaves and droughts to floods and fires that are fueled by climate change cause trauma, distress, and other mental health conditions. So can chronic, slow-onset effects of global warming, such as water and food insecurity, community breakdown, and conflict. Members of marginalized groups, especially Indigenous peoples, feel these effects in unique and especially acute…
Please join us to celebrate the launch of Health Law as Private Law: Pathology or Pathway, published by Cambridge University Press. Might private law be as powerful a tool as government regulation in solving problems in health care and public health? This new edited volume, which grew from a 2023 conference at the Petrie-Flom Center for…
Adolescents—human and animal alike—take risks, challenge authority, and navigate social hierarchies as part of their development. In Wildhood, Dr. Barbara Natterson-Horowitz explores how these behaviors are biologically ingrained and essential for survival. This event will examine how evolutionary biology supports the Supreme Court’s “Children Are Different” jurisprudence, reinforcing why adolescent decision-making should be understood through science rather than…
Artificial intelligence is poised for impact on every aspect of healthcare, healthcare systems, and clinical practice. As use cases emerge, careful analysis of ethical concerns and new legal and regulatory tools are needed. This conversation among experts will explore the ethical considerations for medical and consider current and possible legal and regulatory approaches. Panelists This…
Sacred Rights: Psychedelics, Law, and Spirituality 2025 PULSE Conference Project on Psychedelic Use, Law, and Spiritual Experience (PULSE) Scientific and commercial interest in psychedelics is exploding. In the flood of news about drug companies, clinical trials, and state and federal regulation, one might overlook the spiritual use of psychedelics. However, spiritual use long predates Western…
This special event kicks off the Petrie-Flom Center’s 20th Anniversary year. Join us throughout 2025 to learn and gather inspiration for our next 20 years. Join us to reflect on a turbulent, world-changing year with an esteemed panel of experts. COVID-19, political unrest, and a societal reckoning all contributed to “the year everything changed,” according…
The Health Law Policy, Bioethics, and Biotechnology Workshop provides a forum for discussion of new scholarship in these fields from the world’s leading experts. The workshop is led by Professor I. Glenn Cohen, and presenters come from a wide range of disciplines and departments. Harvard graduate students may register to take the workshop for course…
Event Description Join us for Book Talk: The Constitution of the War on Drugs, as author David Pozen is joined by Mason Marks and Jeannie Suk Gersen to discuss the lost history of constitutional challenges to punitive drug laws and consider possible future paths open to drug reformers today. Please note: The Constitution of the War on…
