Medical Ethics | Penn Today

Engaging Minds showcases Penn’s very best bringing theory to practice

Alumni tuned in from across the world to hear Daniel Gillion discuss the power of protests, Amy Castro Baker give a crash course on the impact of guaranteed income, and Ezekiel Emanuel detail the intricacies of distributing a COVID-19 vaccine.

Rubber gloved-hand reaching through a hole in a wall holding a home COVID test.

Direct-to-consumer COVID-19 testing

Concerns over direct-to-consumer COVID-19 tests may override the benefits, with issues of safety, efficacy, and ethics in question.

Secret, powerful panels will pick COVID-19 vaccine winners

Susan Ellenberg of the Perelman School of Medicine said it’s important to keep data and safety monitoring boards anonymous to protect the members from people desperate for treatment. It “would be very hard to tell [a patient], ‘Oh I can’t help you.’ It’s an unreasonable burden,” she said.

Thousands of American troops to take part in COVID-19 early-detection study

PIK Professor Jonathan Moreno commented on plans to conduct a COVID-19 early-detection study on U.S. troops. “Should we ask for consent if it reveals medical issues that a person in uniform may not want revealed and is not relevant to job performance?” he asked.

FDA poised to announce tougher standards for a COVID-19 vaccine that make it unlikely one will be cleared by Election Day

Holly Fernandez Lynch of the Perelman School of Medicine commented on the FDA’s use of emergency authorizations to expedite coronavirus drugs. “Is the president going to put the screws to the FDA so much that they will speed ahead on a vaccine?” she asked.

Mask skeptic lawmaker takes on side gig overseeing drug company trial

Susan Ellenberg and Holly Fernandez-Lynch of the Perelman School of Medicine commented on U.S. Rep. Andy Harris’s role in overseeing the trials of a coronavirus drug. “The concern about bias wouldn’t arise unless the decision-making [on data from the trial] was difficult,” said Ellenberg. “If the data are such that it's a hard call as to whether to stop the study or not, that's when the personal connections seep into consciousness.”

Multiple vaccine syringes standing upright on a surface.

Who should get the COVID-19 vaccine first?

A group of global experts led by Penn offer a model that lays the groundwork for fair distribution and prioritize reducing premature deaths.

#MedBikini backlash exposes research ethics boards’ digital gaps

Emily Largent of the Perelman School of Medicine weighed in on a retracted study that claimed it was unprofessional for early-career surgeons to post photos of themselves in bathing suits on social media. “This is just proof that when it comes to social media research, in general, we don’t have good guidance,” said Largent.

Jonathan Moreno and Amy Gutmann in a screen shot during a virtual conference.

President Gutmann kicks off 15th World Congress of Bioethics

‘The world has never needed you more than it needs you now,’ she told bioethicists, watching and listening virtually from their respective cities across the globe.

Rows of hospital-grade ventilator machines

Researchers analyze ethics of allocating medical resources in COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic has left many health care providers scrambling for resources to treat cases over the last several months, making doctors face difficult decisions: Whom do you save?

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