New in the Hastings Center Report

Facilitating Ukrainian Refugees’ Continued Participation in Clinical Trials
Agata Bloswick, David Mustra, Oksana Harasymiv, Alex Dubov

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing armed conflict are having a hugely damaging effect on health services and the health infrastructure in Ukraine. Hundreds of clinical trials have been halted, leaving patients without access to treatment and jeopardizing the development of new drugs. This article proposes guidance on facilitating Ukrainian refugees’ continuation in clinical trials, including handover of participants and data to new investigators and the consent process.

At Law: Covid-19, Medical Decisions, Mandates, and High-Risk Minors
Jonathan F. Will

Kensey Dishman, a 13-year-old who suffered from asthma, was unvaccinated when she contracted Covid. She died. Her divorced parents disagreed about whether she should be vaccinated, and her father suggested that it was Kensey’s choice to refuse vaccination. This situation is as complicated as it is tragic, and it raises several legal and ethical issues regarding medical decision-making for minors, parental rights, vaccination mandates, and individual freedom versus government interests in protecting minors as well as public health.

If Not Now, Then When? Taking Disability Seriously in Bioethics
Debjani Mukherjee, Preva S. Tarsney, Kristi L. Kirshner

Ableism and unexamined assumptions about people with disabilities have persisted in bioethics despite decades of counternarratives, research, and divergent perspectives. Ableism and such assumptions can lead to health care decisions that are prone to bias, mistreatment, and a lack of consideration of options for living with disability. As new generations join the field of bioethics, these problems need to be rectified with solutions at the individual, interpersonal, and structural levels. It’s past time to take disability seriously.

Also in this issue:

Toward Meeting the Obligation of Respect for Persons in Pragmatic Clinical Trials by Stephanie R. Morain, Stephanie A. Kraft, Benjamin S. Wilfond, Amy Mcguire, Neal W. Dickert, Andrew Garland, and Jeremy Sugarman

Compulsory Research in Learning Health Care: Against a Minimal Risk Limit by Robert Steel

Perspective: DEI is Not Enough by Nancy M.P. King

Table of Contents

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