#19 Emily Largent and Govind Persad: Is bioethics ok?

In this episode, we speak with two leading bioethics scholars about the state of bioethics today. Dr. Emily Largent is the Emanuel and Robert Hart Associate Professor of Medical Ethics and Health Policy and the Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Govind Persad is an Associate Professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and our first returning guest on Bio(un)ethical.

With Emily and Govind, we consider critiques of bioethics coming from inside and outside of the field. In light of our recent survey of US academic bioethicists, we discuss who bioethicists are, how they are trained, and how they can better promote ethical decision-making in medicine, science, and public health.

(00:00) Our introduction

(05:16) Interview begins

(09:27) Who counts as a bioethicist?

(20:18) The credentialing problem

(30:43) Critiques from outside bioethics: Why are people mad?

(42:17) Protectionist vs. progress-oriented bioethics

(53:26) The field’s major wins

(57:31) Critiques from inside bioethics: Variable research quality

(1:03:29) Financial barriers to entry

(1:05:18) Lack of demographic and ideological diversity

(1:11:53) Should bioethicists’ views mirror the public’s?

Used or referenced:

• Leah Pierson et al., “Bioethicists Today: Results of the Views in Bioethics Survey”
• Leah Pierson, “Becoming a bioethicist is expensive. That’s a problem”
• Leah Pierson, “We need to evaluate ethics curricula”
• Tom Chivers, “How many lives has bioethics cost?”

Bio(un)ethical is a bioethics podcast written and edited by Leah Pierson and Sophie Gibert, with production support by Audiolift.co. Our music is written by Nina Khoury and performed by Social Skills. We are supported by a grant from Amplify Creative Grants.