Research, Regulation, and Ethics #327

July 24, 2015

This week we're learning about the regulatory frameworks that try to balance scientific progress with the safety of research subjects. We'll speak to Holly Fernandez Lynch and I. Glenn Cohen of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School about their book "Human Subjects Research Regulation: Perspectives on the Future." And we'll speak to health journalist and editor Hilda Bastian about research, journalism, ethics and "The Chocolate Hoax."

Guests:

  • Holly Fernandez Lynch
  • I. Glenn Cohen
  • Hilda Bastian
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Guest Bios

Holly Fernandez Lynch

Holly Fernandez Lynch is Executive Director of the Petrie-Flom Center. She is Co-Lead of the Law and Ethics Initiative of the Football Players Health Study at Harvard University, as well as Co-Lead of the Center’s Involvement with the Regulatory Foundations, Ethics, and Law Program of Harvard Catalyst, Harvard’s Clinical and Translational Science Center. In addition, she is Co-Editor of the Center’s collaborative health policy blog, Bill of Health. Her scholarship focuses on law, bioethics, and health policy, in particular the regulation and ethical conduct of research with human subjects domestically and internationally, pharmaceutical development and regulatory policy, conflicts of conscience in health care, medical professionalism, conflicts of interest, and religion in health care.

I. Glenn Cohen

A member of the inaugural cohort of Petrie-Flom Academic Fellows, Glenn was appointed to the Harvard Law School faculty in 2008 and is currently Faculty Director of the Petrie-Flom Center. Glenn is one of the world's leading experts on the intersection of bioethics (sometimes also called "medical ethics") and the law, as well as health law. He also teaches civil procedure. From Seoul to Krakow to Vancouver, Glenn has spoken at legal, medical, and industry conferences around the world and his work has appeared in or been covered on PBS, NPR, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, Mother Jones, the New York Times, the New Republic, the Boston Globe, and several other media venues. His current projects relate to health information technologies, mobile health, reproduction/reproductive technology, research ethics, rationing in law and medicine, health policy, FDA law, and medical tourism.

Hilda Bastian

Hilda Bastian was a long-time consumer advocate in Australia. Her career turned to analyzing health evidence and making it more accessible. She worked for a national science agency in Germany for 7 years before moving to the US to work at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is an academic editor of PLOS Medicine, a major medical journal, and member of the human research ethics advisory group of PLOS One, a general science journal. She also blogs at Absolutely Maybe on PLOS Blogs.