Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics

06/24/2026

Berman Institute Bulletin - This Week - Two Bodies--One Prescription, Blocked Study Published, Battling Measles, Caught in the AI-Safety Crossfire, Affordability Loophole, Devastating Losses, New NIH Security Rules, Blocked SNAP Ban, + Much More

06/24/2026

Research on the potential impacts of certain medical interventions on pregnant people and their fetuses is lacking. Our Ruth Faden joins Public Health On Call to discuss ethically and responsibly include pregnant people in clinical trials. https://podcast.publichealth.jhu.edu/the-ethics-of-including-pregnant-people-in-clinical-trials

For more on this topic: Listen to episode 6 of playing god? podcast: "Two Bodies, One Prescription." - which explores the historical exclusion of pregnant women from medical research, and what happens when patients need answers that medical research can't provide. https://bioethics.jhu.edu/playing-god

playing god? podcast explores the ethical questions shaping medicine, science, and public health through conversations with researchers, clinicians, patients, and policymakers. It is hosted by Lauren Arora Hutchinson - executive producers are Anna Mastroianni and Jeff Kahn

About this episode:   Research on the potential impacts of certain medications, vaccines, and interventions on pregnant people and their fetuses is lacking. Much of this is due to culturally perceived risks associated with pregnancy and fears of litigation. In this episode: Ruth Faden, an....

06/23/2026

in the Academic Lit - This Week - Migration & Health, Ethics of Military Global Health Engagements, No Apologies, AI Decision Support, Inclusive Clinical Trials, Biopolitical Bioethics, Judicial Substitute Consent, Advance Research Directives, + More

June 23, 2026 The UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health: review of the state of progress, The Lancet Authors: Ibrahim Abubakar, David Tellez, Robert Aldridge et al., including Leonard Rubenstein In this Review, nearly 8 years after the UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health was ...

06/23/2026

What happens when patients need answers that medical research can't provide?

When Ashley Womble decides she wants to start a family, she worries she will have to stop taking her antidepressant medication. Instead of finding clear guidance, she runs head first into a troubling reality: many of the questions pregnant women and their physicians face about medication safety remain difficult to answer because pregnant women have historically been excluded from medical research.
This episode of playing god? explores the ethical consequences of those exclusions and what happens when patients and clinicians must make high-stakes healthcare decisions without high-quality evidence.Listen now: "Two Bodies, One Prescription.": https://bioethics.jhu.edu/playing-god

playing god? is a podcast from the Dracopoulos-Bloomberg iDeas Lab at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics that explores the ethical questions shaping medicine, science, and public health through conversations with researchers, clinicians, patients, and policymakers. It is hosted by Lauren Arora Hutchinson, Director of the iDeas Lab; executive producers are Anna Mastroianni and Jeff Kahn.

06/22/2026

Ethics of Military Global Health Engagements - Hunter Jackson Smith | 2026 - Developing World Bioethics

Military global health engagements have grown in scope and strategic relevance, yet their ethical dimensions remain insufficiently examined. Beyond humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, milita...

06/22/2026

The UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health: review of the state of progress - By Ibrahim Abubakar, David Tellez, Robert Aldridge et al, including our Leonard Rubenstein | The Lancet

Although progress towards implementation of international agreements since publication of the UCL–Lancet Commission on Migration and Health in December, 2018, has been slow, global trends in migration and forced displacement have continued to rise. However, the COVID-19 pandemic showed that reachi...

06/19/2026

Global and Policy Program Weekly Roundup | Soaring Beef Prices, Black Women Farmers, 770k Children No Longer Receiving Food Benefits, Slowed Screwworm Response, Migrant Worker Visas, Phosphorous Action, + More

The Johns Hopkins Global Food Ethics and Policy Program, a collaboration of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics and the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International studies, addresses critical global issues of under- and over-nutrition and diet-related diseases, poverty, inequity ...

06/18/2026

AI Ethics & Governance Weekly Roundup | Opting Out? Strong Support for Regulation, Papal Message, Blaming AI for Hospital Death, 'Dangerous' Models, Millions of Songs Smashed, EU AI Act, Research Integrity and Data Ethics, War on Anthropic, + More

06/18/2026

Ethics and Life Sciences Weekly Roundup | Brain Implant, AI & Human Creativity, Opting Out of an AI-Driven Future? Ethical Hacking & Fed Pulse Oximetry Policy, Incorrigibly Didactic, Attitudes toward Xenotransplantation, Future of Gene Editing, + More

06/17/2026

Berman Institute Bulletin - This Week - GLP-1 Drugs on playing god? pod, Opting Out? Brain Implant, ATTENTION! Relearning Risk Communication, Limbo, Valuing our Humanity, + More