Petrie-Flom Center: Health Law, Biotech and Bioethics

This fall, Harvard Law School showcased the works of faculty, alums, and students at book events throughout the semester.

This article was originally published in the Harvard Gazette. Mexico and Colombia recently legalized abortion in landmark rulings that offer a stark contrast to…

The Petrie-Flom Center hosted ‘Roe in limbo: A town hall on the leaked Dobbs opinion.’

A new Harvard Law initiative examines the legal and ethical aspects of therapeutic psychedelics

Glenn Cohen and Carmel Shachar reflect on the administration’s successes, failures, and agenda for the future.

The new Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation (POPLAR) at Harvard Law School recently convened a conference on the future of psychedelics law and regulation.

The Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School has announced a new research initiative, the Project on Psychedelics Law and Regulation, to promote safety, innovation, and equity in psychedelics research, commerce, and therapeutics.

Mason Marks, POPLAR project lead and Petrie-Flom senior fellow, explains how the initiative will fill a gap in research on the ethical, legal, and social implications of psychedelics law and policy, and previews some of the initiative’s topics of inquiry.

Knowing that people with disabilities would be especially vulnerable during the pandemic to problems with healthcare access and other issues, the Harvard Law School Project on Disability turned its attention early on to COVID-related initiatives and advocacy.

Health law has become especially timely in this year of COVID-19 vaccines and revitalized Obamacare. But for graduating student Phebe Hong ’21, it’s a passion that began in high school.

I. Glenn Cohen ’03 and Carmel Shachar J.D./M.P.H. ’10 of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics discuss the Biden administration's healthcare agenda.

What are the ramifications of this pandemic year for medical practitioners? And how might the future of health care be shaped by the wounds inflicted on those we entrust with our lives?

On February 11, the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School announced the formation of its new advisory board.

Should smoking be among the pre-existing health risks that qualify people for priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine? Harvard Law public health expert Carmel Shachar says the answer is yes. 

The Petrie-Flom Center at Harvard Law School is joining forces with the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy, its counterpart at Yale Law School, to host a seminar series reflecting on ethical and legal issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Public health expert Carmel Shachar discusses the COVID-19 vaccine, who is likely to get it first, and whether people can be required to get vaccinated.

Experts gathered this week to discuss the ethical, social, and legal implications of technological advancements that facilitate the early detection of dementia.

Cass Sunstein ’78, Robert Walmsley University Professor and former Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration, believes “Nudge theory” might help bridge the gap between supply and demand for organ transplants.

In an interview with Harvard Law Today, Carmel Shachar, executive director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, says that political interference in the FDA’s process for ensuring that a vaccine is both safe and effective “opens the door to a public health disaster.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the health disparities that result from systemic and structural racism. But while the law has created these disparities, it may also provide opportunities to correct them.

COVID-19 presents a unique threat to people in prisons and jails, agreed panelists at “Incarcerated Populations and COVID-19: Public Health, Ethical, and Legal Concerns,” a webinar hosted by Harvard Law School’s Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics.

Student fellows at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics recently celebrated their fellowships’ end virtually when their capstone meeting moved to Zoom due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

HLS Professors Glenn Cohen and Andrew Crespo discuss their proposals to protect doctors and hospitals from potential lawsuits and criminal prosecution during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a March 27 Petrie-Flom event on medical debt and universal health coverage, health experts and journalists raise serious concerns about the affordability of testing and hospital care.

In a Q&A, scholars at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School raise important legal and ethical questions about health care delivery and the enactment of extraordinary public health measures in response to the ongoing epidemic.

This month, Harvard Law Professors Jim Greiner and I. Glenn Cohen teamed up with bioethics scholar Holly Fernandez Lynch to author “Overcoming obstacles to experiments in legal practice,” in which the collaborators argue in favor of randomized studies in legal research over the common practice of relying on the expertise and judgment of individuals.

Patients are often subjected to nonconsensual procedures and other mistreatment during the birthing process; Alexa Richardson, a student fellow at the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology and Bioethics at Harvard Law School, is working to bring this situation to light.

Amid rising rates of diabetes and obesity in the nation, the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School recently hosted a panel discussion concerning levies—those enacted, those proposed and those failed—on sugary beverages in jurisdictions nationwide.

The General Counsels Roundtable helps influential health law attorneys stay on top of or even ahead of changes in health law and policy. The roundtable connects GC to experts at HLS and the broader university, while also strengthening ties between faculty and legal practice.

This fall, the Harvard Law School Library hosted a series of book talks by Harvard Law School authors on topics ranging from forgiveness in law, transparency in health and fidelity in constitutional practice.

Clinical Professor Robert Greenwald discusses PEPFAR’s impact at home in the United States, policy barriers to "getting to zero," and ways to address the epidemic head-on.

Calls are growing for the U.S. to lift a ban on mitochondrial replacement therapy, or MRT, a procedure developed to enable women who are at risk of passing on rare but devastating diseases to have healthy, biologically related children.

As part of a series called Focal Point, in which the Harvard Gazette asks a range of Harvard faculty members to answer the same question, I. Glenn Cohen explains why we should scrutinize what is and then ponder what should be.

Dalia Deak ’19 is this year’s winner of the individual David Grossman Exemplary Clinical Award, given each year to the student who embodies the pro bono spirit of the late professor and exemplifies putting theory into practice through clinical work.

In a lecture titled “The Second Reproductive Revolution,” I. Glenn Cohen, the faculty director of the Petrie-Flom Center, marked his appointment as the first James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law.

A recent event at Harvard Law School brought together scientists and lawyers to start a dialogue on neuroscience, trauma, and justice as part of the Project on Law and Applied Neuroscience, a collaboration between the Petrie-Flom Center at HLS and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Harvard researchers—including HLS Professor and Petrie-Flom Center Faculty Director Glenn Cohen—and others share their views on key issues in the field.

The Wall Street Journal investigative reporter whose new book chronicles the spectacular collapse of the blood-testing company Theranos and its alleged fraudulent activity told a Harvard audience that the fall is a cautionary tale for other high-tech firms aspiring to disrupt the health care industry.

Last week, Harvard commemorated the centennial of the 1918 influenza pandemic that killed more than 50 million people worldwide with Outbreak Week, a series of events across the university.

During the introduction to the book launch event for “Big Data, Health Law, and Bioethics,” one of the editors, Harvard Law School Professor I. Glenn Cohen ’03, faculty director of the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics, told a story about how powerful – and perhaps foreboding – big data can be.

Maayan Sudai, an S.J.D. candidate at Harvard Law School, has been awarded a prestigious scholarship from Israel’s Dan David Foundation to support her work examining health activism from a legal perspective.

On Jan. 23, the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School and the Center for Advanced Studies in Biomedical Innovation Law (CeBIL) at the University of Copenhagen launched a new collaboration, the Project on Precision Medicine, Artificial Intelligence, and the Law (PMAIL).

This fall, the Harvard Law School Library hosted a series of book talks by HLS authors, with topics ranging from Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts to a Citizen's Guide to Impeachment. As part of this ongoing series, faculty authors from various disciplines shared their research and discussed their recently published books.

This fall, Glenn Cohen, Harvard Law School professor and faculty director for the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics delivered a talk titled “Are There Non-human Persons? Are There Non-person Humans?,” which explored how law and morality should accommodate animals and artificial intelligence alongside human beings.

Harvard Law School Professor Einer Elhauge ’86 will receive the prestigious Jerry S. Cohen Award for Antitrust Scholarship from the American Anititrust Institute at their annual conference on June 21.

While the NFL’s player health policies and practices are robust in some areas, there are opportunities for improvement in others, according to the findings of a new report by researchers at Harvard Law School's Petrie-Flom Center -- the first comprehensive comparative analysis of health policies and practices across professional sports leagues.

On March 23, William B. Schultz, former general counsel of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2011-2016), discussed the complicated politics surrounding the Affordable Care Act and possible policy options for the next phase of the law’s evolution.