Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-skm99 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T01:05:21.503Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Expanding the Role of Bioethics in Translational Science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 November 2022

Mark A. Rothstein
Mark A. Rothstein*
Affiliation:
UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE, LOUISVILLE, KY, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Translational science attempts to accelerate and increase the significance of research progressing from bench to bedside. Support from the NIH through its institutional grant program has increased the prominence and importance of translational science. The inclusion of a broadly based bioethics component to translational science presents an opportunity for bioethics scholars to address fundamental social issues, including the effects of translational science on public health, health equity, and human flourishing. Large-scale bioethical inquiries could examine research priorities, unintended consequences of research, and access to and uptake of research discoveries.

Keywords

Access to Health CareBioethicsHealth EquityResearch EthicsTranslational Science
Type
Columns: Currents in Contemporary Bioethics
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 50 , Issue 3: Transgender Health Equity and the Law , Fall 2022 , pp. 603 - 607
Copyright
© 2022 The Author(s)

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

About This Column

Mark A. Rothstein serves as the section editor for Currents in Contemporary Ethics. Professor Rothstein is the Herbert F. Boehl Chair of Law and Medicine and the Director of the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy and Law at the University of Louisville School of Medicine in Kentucky. (mark.rothstein@louisville.edu)

References

See, e.g., Institute of Medicine, The CTSA Program at NIH: Opportunities for Advancing Clinical and Translational Research (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2013); Rubio, D.M. et al., “Defining Translational Research: Implications for Training,” Academic Medicine 85, no. 3 (2010): 470–475.Google ScholarPubMed
National Institutes of Health, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program, available at < https://ncats.nih.gov/ctsa> (last visited May 28, 2022).+(last+visited+May+28,+2022).>Google Scholar
National Institutes of Health, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, “Translational Science Principles,” available at <https://ncats.nih.gov/training-education/translational-science-principles> (last visited May 24, 2022). See generally Austin, C.P., “Opportunities and Challenges in Translational Science,” Clinical and Translational Science 14, no. 5 (2021): 1629–1647.Google ScholarPubMed
Collins, F.S., “Reengineering Translational Science: The Time Is Right,” Science Translational Medicine 3, no. 90 (2011): 90cm17.Google ScholarPubMed
See generally Fabi, R. and Goldberg, D.S., “Bioethics, (Funding) Priorities, and the Perpetuation of Injustice,” The American Journal of Bioethics 22, no. 1 (2022): 6–13 (arguing that bioethics should explore population-level, systemic issues, especially injustice in health care).Google ScholarPubMed
National Research Council, Applications of Toxicogenomic Technologies to Predictive Toxicology and Risk Assessment (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2007): 173.Google Scholar
See Austin, supra note 3, at 6.Google Scholar
See Pratt, B. and Hyder, A.A., “Fair Resource Allocation to Health Research: Priority Topics for Bioethics Scholarship,” Bioethics 31, no. 6 (2017): 454–456.Google ScholarPubMed
On traditional ethical issues associated with study design, see Loue, S., Textbook of Research Ethics: Theory and Practice (New York, NY: Kluwer Academic/ Plenum Publishers, 2000): 71–89.Google Scholar
See Blank, R.H., Intervention in the Brain: Politics, Policy, and Ethics (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2013).Google Scholar
See generally Kurzweil, R., The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2006); R. Kurzweil, The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1999); R. Kurzweil, The Age of Intelligent Machines (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1990).Google Scholar
Conant, J., The Great Secret (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Co., Inc., 2020).Google Scholar
See Fox, D., “Subversive Science,” Penn State Law Review 124, no. 1 (2019): 153–191.Google Scholar
See Milligan, S., “The Maddeningly High Price of Prescription Drugs,” U.S,. News & World Report December 9, 2021, available at <https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2021-12-09/the-maddeningly-high-price-of-prescription-drugs> (last visited May 30, 2022) (discussing new diabetes drug that costs $2.1 million).+(last+visited+May+30,+2022)+(discussing+new+diabetes+drug+that+costs+$2.1+million).>Google Scholar
See Hill, S.R. et al., “Expensive Medicines: Ensuring Objective Appraisal and Equitable Access,” Bulletin of the World Health Organization 93, no. 1 (2015), available at <https://www.scielosp.org/article/bwho/2015.v93n1/4-4> (last visited May 30, 2022).Google ScholarPubMed
See Sonderholm, J., “Ethical Issues Surrounding Intellectual Property Rights,” Philosophy Compass 5, no. 12 (2010); 1107–1115.Google Scholar
See, e.g., Califf, R.M. and Slavitt, A., “Lowering Cost and Increasing Access to Drugs without Jeopardizing Innovation,” Journal of the American Medical Association 321, no. 16 (2019): 1571–1573.Google ScholarPubMed
See Armstrong, D., “Pfizer Slashes Drug Prices for Poorest Nations, Expanding Access,” The Day, May 31, 2022, available at <https://www.theday.com/business/20220529/pfizer-slashes-drug-prices-for-poorest-nations-expanding-access> (last visited May 31, 2022).+(last+visited+May+31,+2022).>Google Scholar
See Allen, J.D. et al., “Why Are Some People Reluctant to Be Vaccinated for COVID-19? A Cross-Sectional Survey among U.S. Adults in May-June 2020,” Preventive Medicine Reports (2021), available at <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8277541> (last visited May 30, 2022).+(last+visited+May+30,+2022).>Google Scholar
See Mensah-Bonsu, N.E. et al., “Understanding Vaccine Hesitancy among Parents of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Parents of Children with Non-Autism Developmental Delays,” Journal of Child Neurology 36, no. 10 (2021): 911–918; M. Velasquez-Manoff, “The Anti-Vaccine Movement’s New Frontier,” The New York Times Magazine, May 29, 2022.Google Scholar
See Mesch, G.S. and Schwirian, K.P., “Confidence in Government and Vaccination Willingness in the USA,” Health Promotion International 30, no. 2 (2015): 213–221.Google ScholarPubMed
See Enten, H., “How Longstanding Mistrust of Government Is Hurting Our Vaccination Efforts,” CNN Politics, July 10, 2021, available at <cnn.com/2021/07/10/politics/vaccinations/government-mistrust-analysis/index.html> (last visited May 30, 2022).Google Scholar
See Medvic, S.K., “Examining Resistance to COVID-19 Measures through a Political Science Lens,” Lancasteronline, September 26, 2021, available at <https://lancasteronline.com/opinion/columnists/examining-resistance-to-covid-19-measures-through-a-political-science-lens-opinion/article_66828698-1cbb-11ec-86a1-b36737c6d0d1.html> (last visited May 31, 2022).+(last+visited+May+31,+2022).>Google Scholar
The United States has a long history of partisan politics interfering with public health, dating back at least to the influenza pandemic of 1918. See Desjardin, S., “The 1918 Spanish Flu Ravaged the World. What Can It Teach Us about Coronavirus?” The Hill, March 19, 2020, available at <www.thehill.com/changing-america/opinion/488429-the-1918-spanish-flu-ravaged-the-world-what-can-it-teach-us-about/> (last visited May 31, 2022).Google Scholar
Bump, P., “Quarter of U.S. Covid Deaths Were Probably Preventable with Vaccination,” ,Washington Post April 21, 2022, available at <https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/21/quarter-us-covid-deaths-were-preventable-with-vaccination> (last visited May 30, 2022).Google Scholar
See, e.g., Shmueli, L., “Predicting Intention to Receive COVID-19 Vaccination among the General Population Using the Health Belief Model and the Theory of Planned Behavioral Model,” BMC Public Health 21, art. 804 (2021), available at <https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-10816-7> (last visited May 31, 2022).Google Scholar
Cook-Deegan, R., The Gene Wars: Science, Politics, and the Human Genome (New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994): 237. See generally E.T. Juengst, “Self-Critical Federal Science? The Ethics Experiment with the U.S. Human Genome Project,” Social Philosophy and Policy 13, no. 2 (1996): 63-95; E.M. Meslin, E.J. Thomson, and J.T. Boyer, “The Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications Research Program at the National Human Genome Research Institute,” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 7, no. 3 (1997): 291-298.Google Scholar
National Human Genome Research Institute, ELSI Publications and Products Database, available at <https://www.genome.gov/Funded-Programs-Projects/ELSI-Research-Program/Publications-Products-Database> (last visited May 30, 2022).+(last+visited+May+30,+2022).>Google Scholar
Austin, supra note 3, at 6.Google Scholar
Id. at 17.Google Scholar