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Book Talk: Birth Rights and Wrongs: How Medicine and Technology are Remaking Reproduction and the Law

September 10, 2019
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Couldn't join us for the book talk? Check out some of the speakers' slide presentations and blog posts! Description Millions of Americans rely on the likes of birth control,…

2019 Petrie-Flom Center Annual Conference: Consuming Genetics: Ethical and Legal Considerations of New Technologies

May 17, 2019
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Couldn't join us for the conference? Join the conversation on Twitter with #DTCgenome! And check out many of our speakers' slide presentations and our "Consuming Genetics" blog symposium! The…

I. Glenn Cohen Chair Lecture - The Second Reproductive Revolution: From Gene Editing, to Uterus Transplants, to Embryos Derived from Our Skin – How Technology Is Changing Reproduction

April 29, 2019
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Dean John F. Manning honored I. Glenn Cohen on the occasion of his appointment as the James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law Professor Cohen, who is also…

What Should Happen to Our Medical Records When We Die?: Digital Health @ Harvard

April 3, 2019

Couldn't join us at the event? Check out our presenter's slides! Description Digital innovation is transforming health care, and the amount of digital health care data being generated…

Putting Patients at the Center of Research: Opportunities and Challenges for Ethical and Regulatory Oversight

June 29, 2018
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Description Efforts to place the patient at the center of medical research, spurred by the Affordable Care Act’s founding of the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute, have begun…

Harvard Medical School Annual Bioethics Conference 2018: Defining Death: Organ Transplantation and the 50-Year Legacy of the Harvard Report on Brain Death

April 11 - 13, 2018

The 2018 Annual Bioethics Conference explored the legacy of the 1968 report from the Harvard Medical School committee that proposed the concept of “brain death” as a new criterion for…

Can Lost Embryos Give Rise to a Wrongful-Death Suit?

Sara Zhang, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
The Atlantic

From the article: Over a single weekend in March, an unprecedented disaster hit fertility clinics—twice. First came the news that the University Hospitals Fertility Center in Ohio, lost…

Preventing Mitochondrial Disease: A Path Forward

Eli Y. Adashi and I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Obstetrics & Gynecology

Abstract: In a possible first, the heritable transmission of a fatal mitochondrial DNA disease (Leigh syndrome) may have been prevented by replacing the mutation-bearing mitochondria of oocytes with donated mutation-free…

Divorced couple take their fight over frozen embryos to Colorado Supreme Court

Andrew Fies, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
ABC News

From the story: What happens when the parents who created frozen embryos go to war with each other over whether to procreate with them or destroy them? That's the…

Court to weigh if one parent has the right to use frozen embryos if the other objects: Case before the Colorado Supreme Court hinges on a person's right to procreate - or not procreate.

Ariana Eunjung Cha, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Washington Post

From the article: On Tuesday, the Colorado Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the Rookses' case. Although several other cases have made their way to states' high courts, legal…

Sixth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review

December 12, 2017
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Couldn't join us? Check out the conversation on Twitter: @PetrieFlom #healthlawpreview2018 and some of our speakers' slide presentations below! Description The Sixth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review…

Book Launch: Specimen Science: Ethics and Policy Implications

November 9, 2017

In September 2017, MIT Press will publish Specimen Science: Ethics and Policy Implications, co-edited by Holly Fernandez Lynch (outgoing Petrie-Flom Executive Director), Barbara Bierer, I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director), and Suzanne…

Research with Biospecimens: Balancing Individual Interests and Social Goods

October 21, 2017

This panel at the annual meeting of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities examined issues addressed at Petrie-Flom's 2015 conference "Specimen Science: Ethics and Policy Implications," and the edited…

How Gene Cloning In Pigs Could Help Humans Fight Disease

Jim Braude, interviewing I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Greater Boston (WGBH, Boston)

For the next great medical advancement, look not to the test tube, but to the farm. Experiments that were done here in Boston could make it possible to one-day transplant…

Specimen Science: Ethics and Policy Implications

Edited by Holly Fernandez Lynch (Executive Director), Barbara E. Bierer, I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director), and Suzanne M. Rivera
MIT Press

Order through MIT Press and receive 30% off using discount code MSPECIMEN30: Order now! This edited volume stems from a conference in 2015 that brought together leading experts to address key ethical…

Babies From Skin Cells? Prospect Is Unsettling to Some Experts

Tamar Lewin, citing I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
New York Times

From the article: Three prominent academics in medicine and law sounded an alarm about the possible consequences in a paper published this year. “I.V.G. may raise the…

Science Needs Your Cells: New York Times Op-Ed by Executive Director Holly Fernandez Lynch

Holly Fernandez Lynch (Executive Director) and Steven Joffe
New York Times

Biospecimens are essential to medical progress, but just medical waste to patients. Let's promote the science. From the op-ed: Many aspects of Ms. Lacks’s story reflect genuine…

Harvard Medical School 2017 Bioethics Conference: The Ethics of "Making Babies"

April 6 - 7, 2017

Description The use of assisted reproductive technologies raises far-reaching ethical and legal implications, yet there is little regulatory oversight of these medical procedures in the United States. In a field…

Addressing the ethical issues raised by synthetic human entities with embryo-like features

John Aach, Jeantine Lunshof, Eswar Iyer, and George M. Church
eLife

On November 7, 2016, the Petrie-Flom Center hosted the conference "The Ethics of Early Embryo Research & the Future of the 14-Day Rule," which convened experts in bioethics, stem cell research, embryology,…

Fifth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review

January 23, 2017
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Couldn't make it to the event? Check out some of the speakers' slides as well as the Health Affairs blog symposium! Description The Fifth Annual Health Law Year in…

Academic Fellow Alumna Michelle N. Meyer Named in Forbes List of 10 Favorite: Healthcare Commentaries of 2016!

David Shaywitz
Forbes

In a year characterized by the extremes of rhetoric, healthcare entrepreneurs have been blessed with a number of thoughtful commentaries representing the opposite extreme. The selections cited below are measured,…

Review of Human Subjects Research Regulation: Perspectives on the Future: edited by I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director) and Holly Fernandez Lynch (Executive Director)

Erin Phinney Johnson
American Journal of Bioethics

From the review: Overall, the editors present an intriguing look at the concerns currently facing human subjects research regulation and provide a number of suggestions for how to go about…

“Sperm Donor Anonymity and Compensation: An Experiment with American Sperm Donors”: New Scholarship from Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen

Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director), Travis Coan, Michelle Ottey, and Christina Boyd
Journal of Law and the Biosciences (JLB)

Prohibiting Sperm Donor Anonymity Could Reduce the Number of Donors: A new study published in the Journal of Law and the Biosciences (JLB) suggests that prohibiting anonymous sperm donation would…

Book Launch: Nudging Health: Health Law and Behavioral Economics

November 16, 2016

In November 2016, Johns Hopkins University Press published Nudging Health: Health Law and Behavioral Economics, co-edited by Petrie-Flom Center Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen, Executive Director Holly Fernandez Lynch, and Christopher…

EVENT POSTPONED: HLS Library Book Talk: Charles Fried on Medical Experimentation: Personal Integrity and Social Policy - New Edition

featuring I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Harvard Law School

Wednesday, November 9, 2016 at noon Harvard Law School Room WCC 2036 Milstein East B/C 1585 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge Lunch will be provided. More About Medical Experimentation: Personal Integrity and Social Policy: New…

RECEIVE 30% OFF! Nudging Health: Health Law and Behavioral Economics

I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director), Holly Fernandez Lynch (Executive Director), and Christopher T. Robertson (Academic Fellow alumnus), eds.
Johns Hopkins University Press

Abstract of the Introduction: This introductory chapter to the edited volume Nudging Health: Health Law and Behavioral Economics (I. Glenn Cohen, Holly Fernandez Lynch, Christopher T. Robertson, eds.) introduces the…

Rights, Nudging, and the Good of Others

Luke Gelinas (Petrie-Flom/Harvard Catalyst Fellow in Clinical Research Ethics)
16 American Journal of Bioethics 11

Luke Gelinas, the Petrie-Flom/Harvard Catalyst Fellow in Clinical Research Ethics, has a new article commentary out in the American Journal of Bioethics responding to a new article (in the…

Issues With Tissues

Emily Largent (Student Fellow Alumna)
16 American Journal of Bioethics 11

Student Fellow Alumna Emily Largent has a new article commentary out in the American Journal of Bioethics, in which she responds to a new article (in the same issue) on…

Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen Joins National Academy of Sciences Committee: Cohen and HMS Center for Bioethics Director Robert Truog to Advise on Issues in Organ Donor Intervention Research

Petrie-Flom Center

I. Glenn Cohen, Faculty Director of Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics and Robert Truog, Director of the Harvard Medical School Center…

Is Medical Tourism Ethical?: Profile of I. Glenn Cohen's work as a Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholar

The Greenwall Foundation

Petrie-Flom Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen served as a Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholar, Class of 2015. The Greenwall Foundation recently published a profile of Cohen's project, "Is Medical Tourism Ethical?": …

Federal Government’s Proposed Expansion of Regulation of Biospecimen Research Should Be Reconsidered: New Commentary from Petrie-Flom Fellowship Alumnus Christopher T. Robertson

Christopher T. Robertson and Jonathan D. Loe
Biopreservation and Biobanking

Note: The full article is behind a paywall. Abstract: In September, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, together with other federal agencies, announced proposed changes to the…

Bioethics: The Law, Medicine, and Ethics of Reproductive Technologies and Genetics: New EdX Course from Faculty Director Glenn Cohen

Petrie-Flom Center

Bioethics: The Law, Medicine, and Ethics of Reproductive Technologies and Genetics An introduction to the study of bioethics and the application of legal and ethical reasoning. Course begins on September 6, 2016.…

Organ Transplant Troubles

Jim Braude interviewing I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director), Adel Bozorgzadeh, & Natasha Dolgin
WGBH News

Thousands of patients are denied potentially lifesaving transplants while donated organs are being thrown away. Why? Harvard law Professor Glenn Cohen (@CohenProf), UMass Transplant Surgeon Dr. Adel Bozorgzadeh, and UMass…

The FDA is prohibited from going germline

I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director) and Eli Y. Adashi
Science

Petrie-Flom Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen has co-authored a new article in Science magazine addressing recent legislation preventing the FDA from approving any research "in which a human embryo is…

A designer will grow Alexander McQueen’s skin in a lab to use for leather bags and jackets

Marc Bain, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Quartz

[...] Glenn Cohen, an expert on the intersection of bioethics and law at Harvard Law School, says it’s “very common” for researchers to take tissue and use…

FDA Regulations Limit Blood Donations From Gay Men

Holly Quan, featuring I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
CBS San Francisco

Excerpt from the article: On World Blood Donation Day and in the wake of the Orlando mass shooting, a leading bioethicist Tuesday called for a change in the FDA&rsquo…

After The Orlando Massacre, Many In The LGBTQ Community Are Turned Away From Giving Blood

Nikki Blank, interviewing I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Greater Boston (WGBH)

Excerpt from interview: Early in the 1980's, there was a lifetime ban or deferral for any man who had ever had sex with another man. Even once. But in May,…

Fourth Annual Health Law Year in P/Review

January 29, 2016
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Couldn't attend in person? Learn more about the event: Learn more about the presentations - check out select speakers' slides below! Check out the collaborative blog series on the…

Learning the wrong lesson on privacy from Henrietta Lacks

Christopher Robertson (Student Fellow Alumnus) and Jonathan D. Loe
Washington Post

From the article: In her acclaimed 2010 book, “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,” Rebecca Skloot tells the story of a poor black woman with cervical cancer who checked…

Specimen Science: Ethics and Policy Implications

November 16, 2015
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An edited volume based on this conference is due out from MIT Press in September 2017. Check it out! Learn more about the presentations - check out some of our speakers'…

Health Law Workshop: Julian Savulescu

October 19, 2015

Presentation Download the papers: "The Ethics of Gene Editing" "Mitochondrial Transfer Is Transplantation, Not Genetic Engineering" About the Presenter Julian Savulescu is Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics, Director of The…

Health Law Workshop: Jessica L. Roberts

September 21, 2015

Presentation Download the paper: "Theories of Genetic Ownership" About the Presenter Jessica L. Roberts is the Director of the Health Law and Policy Institute and an Associate Professor of Law…

New Review of Academic Fellow Rachel Sachs on Fecal Transplants

Nicholas Bagley
The Incidental Economist

Rachel E. Sachs' new paper "Ensuring the Safe and Effective FDA Regulation of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation," coauthored with Carolyn Edelstein, has been reviewed by Nicholas Bagley on The Incidental Economist.…

Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen: New Blood-Donor Policy, Same Gay Stigma

I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director) and Eli Y. Adashi
New York Times

Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen has co-authored an op-ed for the New York Times on the FDA's new blood donor policy. From the piece: LAST week, the Food and…

Review of Human subjects research regulation: perspectives on the future: by I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director) & Holly F. Lynch (Executive Director) (eds.):

Lydia Stewart Ferreira (Visiting Scholar)
Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics

Petrie-Flom Visiting Scholar Lydia Stewart Ferreira, currently Adjunct Professor at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law and Osgoode Hall Law School, recently published a review of I. Glenn Cohen …

An Interview with I. Glenn Cohen on Selling Human Organs

Joel Cohen interviewing I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Talks on Law

Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen joins Joel Cohen from Talks on Law to discuss selling human organs. With millions of Americans waiting for life saving organ transplants, why are human…

“My Body, My Bank”

I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Texas Law Review, Vol. 93, No. 4

Abstract: This essay reviews Kara Swanson’s "Banking on the Body: The Market in Blood, Milk, and Sperm in Modern America" (Harvard University Press, 2014) and uses it as an…

FDA plans to end prohibition on blood donation by gay men, with conditions

Gwen Ifill, interviewing I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
PBS News Hour

"[...] the ban that we had in place was really outdated. It dates back to 1983, the early days of the HIV crisis, and a few things have changed since then. First…

F.D.A. Easing Ban on Gays, to Let Some Give Blood

Sabrina Tavernise, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
New York Times

[...] “This is a major victory for gay civil rights,” said I. Glenn Cohen, a law professor at Harvard who specializes in bioethics and health. “We’re…

FDA Announces Plans to End Lifetime Ban on Gay Men Donating Blood

Colleen Curry, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Vice News

[...] Harvard Law School bioethics and the law professor I. Glenn Cohen told VICE News that while he thought the FDA's proposed policy change is a good first step, it…

US lifts ban on gay men donating blood — as long as they don’t have sex with other men

Sarah Kliff and Julia Belluz, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Vox

[...] Glenn Cohen, a Harvard Law professor who wrote about the blood donor rule in JAMA: the Journal of the American Medical Association, sees a one-year deferral as an interim step,…

FDA Advisors Not Sold on Lifting Ban on Gay Men Giving Blood

Dennis Thomson, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Philly.com

[...] The FDA first adopted the policy at the dawn of the AIDS crisis. However, changing times and technological advances have rendered the decades-old ban obsolete, according to Glenn Cohen, who…

Global Reproduction: Health, Law, and Human Rights in Surrogacy and Egg Donation

November 5, 2014
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A screening of the documentary Can We See the Baby Bump, Please?, which was followed by a panel discussion of the legal and human rights issues surrounding surrogacy and egg…

Freezing Eggs to Put off Pregnancy - Clever Business Move but Not Magic Bullet: Experts

Ria Novosti, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)

From the article: [...] Although companies consider their offer to freeze eggs to be a benefit for female employees, Glenn Cohen, a Professor of Law at Harvard University, believes there is…

Organs Without Borders? Allocating Transplant Organs, Foreigners, and the Importance of the Natio…

I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
Social Science Research Network

Abstract: Most of the discussion of market or non-market forms of allocating and procuring organs takes as its unit of analysis the nation state, or, less commonly a particular state…

Egg freezing message: Lean in, and save the kids for later

Joanna Weiss, quoting I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
The Boston Globe

From the article: [...] Glenn Cohen, a professor at Harvard Law School, worries that an egg-freezing perk could function as a sorting mechanism, too. Soon, he fears, we’ll be…

Facebook and Apple Are Now Paying for Egg Freezing

Nancy Redd, interviewing I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
HuffPost Live

In this segment of HuffPost Live, host Nancy Redd interviews Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen to discuss the recent news that Facebook and Apple will now offer their employees the…

Jeanne Shaheen says Scott Brown backed bill to let employers use religious opt-out on mammograms

Louis Jacobson, quoting Holly Fernandez Lynch (Executive Director)
PolitiFact

From the article: [...] Holly Fernandez Lynch, a Harvard bioethicist and author of Conflicts of Conscience in Health Care: An Institutional Compromise, called the claim "technically true" but "a bit of…

Human Subjects Research Regulation: Perspectives on the Future

I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director) and Holly Fernandez Lynch (Executive Director), eds.
MIT Press

Human Subjects Research Regulation: Perspectives on the Future (MIT Press 2014), co-edited by Petrie-Flom Center Faculty Director, I. Glenn Cohen, and Executive Director, Holly Fernandez Lynch, stems from the Center&rsquo…

Inquisitive Nashville teen finds her egg donor mom

Heidi Hall, featuring I. Glenn Cohen (Faculty Director)
USA Today

Originally published as "Nashville teen finds her egg donor mom," The Tennesseean (June 5, 2014). [...] The identity of U.S. sperm and egg donors is protected by default. In the United Kingdom,…

2014 Annual Conference: Behavioral Economics, Law, and Health Policy

May 2 - May 3, 2014
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Couldn't join us in person at Harvard Law School? Join the conversation on Twitter using #BELHP2014! We also liveblogged the full event at Bill of Health throughout the conference…

The First Issue of Journal of Law and Biosciences Is Now Available!

Petrie-Flom Center

We are pleased to announce that the first issue of Journal of Law and the Biosciences (JLB) is now available online. The articles are: Knoppers, Bartha M., Edward S. Dove, …

Health Law Year in P/Review

January 31, 2014
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Couldn't attend in person? Learn more about the event: Learn more about the presentations - check out select speakers' slides below! Watch the video of this conference online! (See…

Legal Aspects of Biobanking as Key Issues for Personalized Medicine & Translational Exploitation

Timo Minssen (Petrie-Flom Visiting Scholar) and Jens Schovsbo

Abstract: This perspective-article provides an overview on selected legal aspects of biobanking. It discusses these issues with a focus on public biobanks in a university setting and the specific challenges…

Bioethical Reflections in Honor of Dan Brock

November 22, 2013

The Conference honors Dan Brock and his contributions to bioethics. Brock has been one of the most influential figures in American bioethics. Prior to his arrival at Harvard, Dr. Brock…

VIDEO NOW AVAILABLE: Stem Cell Therapies:: Opportunities for Assuring the Quality and Safety of Unregulated Clinical Offerings

Co-organized by I. Glenn Cohen
Institute of Medicine

Stem cells hold tremendous potential to advance health and medicine. Through replacement of damaged cells and organs or supporting intrinsic repair, stem cell offer promising treatments for debilitating diseases and…

Genes without Patents: ACLU attorney joins discussion of Supreme Court case

Alvin Powell, featuring I. Glenn Cohen
Harvard Gazette

As Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan questioned Myriad Genetics’ attorney about patenting genes, Chris Hansen rejoiced. The attorney said that yes, genes should be patentable. But it was only…

Perceptions of Efficacy, Morality, and Politics of Potential Cadaveric Organ Transplantation Reforms

Christopher T. Robertson, David V. Yokum, and Megan S. Wright
Law and Contemporary Problems

We sought to explore the political feasibility of potential policy reforms to address the shortage of cadaveric organs for transplantation in America. We recruited 730 human subjects from an online population…

Anonymity, the Production of Goods, and Institutional Design

Jeffrey Skopek
Fordham Law Review

Abstract: In this article, I demonstrate that anonymity has been misconceived as an aspect of privacy, and that understanding this mistake reveals a powerful and underutilized set of legal tools…

Charles Fried on Evidence as a Public Good

March 01, 2013

We hear a lot about the conflict between use of an individual's information for the public good and that individual's privacy concerns. In this talk organized by PFC…

The Future of Human Subjects Research Regulation

May 6, 2012
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Conference Description The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently released an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM), titled "Human Subjects Research Protections: Enhancing Protections for Research Subjects…