Ethics Lab
Ethics Lab is a hub for creative ethics learning at Georgetown and beyond.
The lab takes a practical approach to applied ethics, tackling complex contemporary moral problems using a mix of philosophical tools and design thinking.
In the lab, we recognize that new tools, policies, and frameworks are needed to reckon with today’s moral challenges, and we aim to address those challenges through direct-impact work and a transformative ethics education. Our character-based ethics learning works to educate women and men for others, and our direct-impact work aims to make a difference in the world beyond Georgetown’s gates.
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Bioethics Research Library
The KIE’s Bioethics Research Library is the world’s most comprehensive collection of scholarly bioethics materials in the world. The library is home to more than 100,000 books, journals, archival materials, and digital objects. Its collections span classical thought to contemporary and emerging issues; rare and unpublished works to ephemeral, hard-to-find gray literature; and a diverse range of opinions expressed on bioethics issues covering the range of religious, political, and cultural perspectives developed globally.
The library offers world-class research support to bioethics scholars across the globe, and you can access the library’s extensive archives online, schedule a one-on-one consultation with a librarian, and receive customized, iterative research support for free from anywhere in the world. The Institute also offers its Visiting Researchers Programs to research in-residence (link to program).
The Bioethics Research Library is located in Georgetown’s iconic Healy Hall building and is open to students, faculty, and researchers from across campus.
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Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal
Now in its third decade of publication, the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal is an interdisciplinary quarterly journal. Over time, the journal’s focus has evolved from an early emphasis on traditional concerns in bioethics – such as the ethics of clinical research and physician-patient relations – to include moral issues in emerging medical technologies and other aspects of human health and well-being, including public health ethics and environmental justice.
The journal solicits in-depth articles that combine detailed conceptual analysis with practical engagement. Please visit the Journal website for more information about manuscript and submission guidelines.
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COVID-19 Resources
Our scholars are working with other leading experts to help provide ethical guidance in high-level healthcare policies and in day-to-day life during the COVID-19 pandemic.
KIE Acting Director and Georgetown University President John DeGioia “Georgetown Now Series”
KIE Acting Director Dr. Daniel Sulmasy “Age, Life-Years, Fair Innings: The Ethics of Chronometric Rationing in COVID-19”
KIE Webinar on “On Pandemics, Vaccines, Age, and Global Justice: A Conversation with Henry Richardson and Nancy Jecker”
KIE Webinar on Global implications of the COVID-19 pandemic
Acting Director at the KIE Dr. Daniel Sulmasy on Bioethics during the COVID-19 Pandemic
The Kennedy Institute of Ethics is pleased to bring to your attention that Georgetown University’s Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics and the Catholic Health Association will be presenting a series of Thursday webinars on topics in clinical ethics related to COVID-19.
KIE Scholarship
- Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics – Against Personal Ventilator Reallocation (Dr. Joel Michael Reynolds)
- Science – An ethical framework for global vaccine allocation (Dr. Henry Richardson)
- Minerva Anestesiologica – Principled decisions and virtuous care: an ethical assessment of the SIAARTI Guidelines for allocating intensive care resources (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- The Hastings Center Bioethics Forum: Against Personal Ventilator Reallocation (Dr. Joel Michael Reynolds)
- The Hastings Center Bioethics Forum: Clinical Trials vs. Right to Try: Ethical Use of Chloroquine for Covid-19 (Dr. Robert Veatch)
- The Hastings Center Report – Should Institutions Disclose the Names of Employees with Covid-19? (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy and Dr. Robert Veatch)
- The Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics, Georgetown University Medical Center – Ethical Principles of Resource Allocation In the Event of an Overwhelming Surge of COVID-19 Patients (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- The Bioethics Research Library – COVID-19: Ethics Resources
KIE in the News
- National Catholic Reporter – “Vatican’s Academy for Life takes on vaccine skeptics, including Catholics” (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- Sunday Telegraph – “Letters: The Tories have misjudged the mood in their southern heartlands” SIR – The Government will surely have carried out a cost-benefit analysis of extending the Covid restrictions. When may we expect it to be published? (Dr. John Keown)
- Georgetown College News Story – “Georgetown Ethicist Collaborates with Physicians to Create Moral Framework for Elective Surgeries During COVID-19” (Dr. Tom Beauchamp)
- The Hill – “Biden faces criticism over push to vaccinate teachers” (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- WUSA9 – “What will the end of the pandemic look like?” (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- Inside Higher Ed – “Vaccines for Educators — but Not All Educators” (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- The Daily Record – “Two Md. hospitals offered COVID-19 vaccinations to board members” (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- Wired – “The Ethics of Vaccinating Teachers—and Keeping Schools Closed” (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy and Dr. Karen Stohr)
- New York Daily News – What truly ethical vaccine distribution looks like – (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- The Hill – Hospitals boost security, seek to stop vaccine ‘line-jumping’ (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- Wall Street Journal – “Covid-19 Vaccine: Should Lawmakers Get Priority? Senators and House Members grapple with whether Congress should get the coronavirus vaccination before constituents” (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- The Kojo Nnamdi Show – Ethicists Tackle the Pandemic’s Moral Dilemmas (Dr. Karen Stohr)
- Voice of America – What Will The Post-COVID New Normal Look Like in the US? (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- One Zero – ‘Immunity Passports’ Could Create a New Category of Privilege (Dr. Sean Aas)
- New York Daily News – Respirators, our rights, right and wrong: Medical ethics in an age of coronavirus (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- Tablet – The virus and the common good (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- NBC Nightly News – Coronavirus patients face challenges in trying experimental treatments (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- Courthouse News Service – Ventilator Ethics: National Supply Is Days Away From Peak Use (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy)
- Washingtonian – Ask A Coronavirus Ethicist (Dr. Daniel Sulmasy and Dr. Karen Stohr)
- Medium – Is Grocery Delivery Ethical During a Pandemic? (Dr. Karen Stohr)
- Georgetown News – Experts Say PPE Distribution an Ethical Concern During Current Pandemic (Dr. Carol Taylor)
Acting Director Dr. Daniel Sulmasy speaks on The Berkley Center’s “The COVID-19 Crisis and Challenges to the Common Good” webinar.
Acting Director Dr. Daniel Sulmasy speaks on “Lessons after the Lockdown: Public Health, Economics, and the Common Good“