Should COVID-19 vaccines be mandatory? “Lawmakers in more than 40 states have proposed legislation to prohibit mandates requiring employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Sponsors of such measures argue that vaccination should be a choice.”

How can we think about the future of ethical gene therapy research and practice? Past medical practice has impeded these efforts. “Now, a fresh effort to cure Gelsinger’s disease is bearing fruit, in the latest sign of the field’s resurgence.”

A notice released on Apr. 16th officially “by the U.S. National Institutes of Health does away with both a ban on such studies by researchers within NIH and a layer of ethical review that had torpedoed funding applications from external researchers.”

Mixed messaging can cause problems in the pandemic. “Blood clot-scare risks setting vaccination campaigns back. Public confidence in the vaccine is plummeting in France, Germany and Spain.” What can we do to help this issue?

Vaccine rollout of the Johnson & Johnson has paused in the United States, ” a “pause” that now looks indefinite and threatens to upend vaccination efforts overseas and in some of the most marginalized communities in the United States.”

Can we work faster to make vaccines? How can we get vaccines distributed across the world? What are the ethical challenges of vaccine distribution? All these questions need to be considered for what it takes to vaccinate the world against COVID-19.

“In order to heal long-standing divides between patients and doctors, medicine needs to be responsive to persistent calls for change. Obtaining explicit permission for examination of a patient’s sexual organs is one such area.”

“It is imperative that governments are explicit about the ethical commitments that support any vaccination certification policy. Motivations rooted in neocapitalism and individual liberalism are at odds with public health ethics.”

What are the ethical challenges of organ transplantation? “Denying organ transplants to people with intellectual and neurodevelopmental disabilities is common, even though it is illegal under the Americans with Disabilities Act.”

How can bioethics help software in medicine? “Bioethicists can help strengthen ethical, legal, and social analyses that identify the questions to create a good mix of both precautionary and permissive regulation.”