COVID vaccine vials
In the beginning of the COVID pandemic, researchers and bioethicists called for human challenge trials to hasten the development of a vaccine, explain former Institute for Practical Ethics postdoctoral scholars Athmeya Jayaram, Jacob Sparks and Daniel Callies in the journal Bioethics.

“[E]thical objections to challenge trials may have slowed the progress of a COVID vaccine, so it is important to evaluate their merit,” they write. The researchers conclude — as new variants of COVID are being discovered — that if the medical community accepts the risks and benefits of organ donation, they can safely accept the same for COVID challenge trials.
Dr. Shozi received his Ph.D. in Law from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, and conducts research on the legal, ethical and human-rights implications of novel technologies.
Bonginkosi Shozi
The 2021 – 2022 students come from disciplines across campus: public health and medicine, political science, sociology and the Science Studies Program, philosophy, psychology, visual arts, economics, communication, history, and computer science.
All 13 phd fellows
The history of vaccine hesitancy is pointedly and painfully familiar. Institute for Practical Ethics co-director John H. Evans said modern religious objections are based more on perceptions of morality than disagreement over facts.
open call info
Open call for postdoctoral scholar: The initial round of applications for a one-year position as a postdoctoral scholar for the academic year 2022 – 2023 closes Dec. 10, 2021. The primary task of the scholar is to work on their own research, focusing on the ethics of science, technology and medicine.
Dov Fox
“Donor 9623 and the Strange Business of Making Babies”: Dov Fox, Professor of Law and director of the Center for Health Law Policy & Bioethics at the University of San Diego, joined the institute to explain the complex forces and competing agendas behind the biggest reproductive hoax of our time.