Research Programs
Petrie-Flom Center: Health Law, Biotech and Bioethics
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On the bookshelf
December 13, 2022
This fall, Harvard Law School showcased the works of faculty, alums, and students at book events throughout the semester.
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Lesson from Latin America for US abortion rights movement
October 28, 2022
This article was originally published in the Harvard Gazette. Mexico and Colombia recently legalized abortion in landmark rulings that offer a stark contrast to…
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The Petrie-Flom Center hosted ‘Roe in limbo: A town hall on the leaked Dobbs opinion.’
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Reassessing Psychedelics
January 31, 2022
A new Harvard Law initiative examines the legal and ethical aspects of therapeutic psychedelics
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Glenn Cohen and Carmel Shachar reflect on the administration’s successes, failures, and agenda for the future.
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The obstacles to decriminalizing psychedelic drugs are political, not legal, say experts
October 13, 2021
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.
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Petrie-Flom Center announces new research initiative on psychedelics law and regulation
July 7, 2021
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Sick and tired
April 20, 2021
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?
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Petrie-Flom Center assembles new advisory board, including Moderna consultant, WHO legal counsel, and hospital executive
February 11, 2021
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.
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Should smokers be prioritized for COVID vaccine?
February 2, 2021
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.
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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.
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What you should know about the COVID-19 vaccine
December 3, 2020
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.
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Detecting dementia
November 21, 2020
Experts gathered this week to discuss the ethical, social, and legal implications of technological advancements that facilitate the early detection of dementia.
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Nudging organ donation in the United States
November 13, 2020
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.
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Building public trust in a coronavirus vaccine
October 6, 2020
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.”
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Race and Health: Panelists examine the connection between law and racial vulnerability to COVID-19
September 30, 2020
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.
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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.
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At year-end celebration, Petrie-Flom student fellows present their independent research projects
April 27, 2020
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.
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Emergency statutes must be passed to protect doctors and hospitals from potential lawsuits, say Harvard Law professors
April 7, 2020
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.
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‘Medical debt is a violation of human rights’
April 7, 2020
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.
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Protecting rights in a global crisis
March 25, 2020
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.
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Overcoming obstacles to experiments in legal practice
March 19, 2020
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.
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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.
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In soda tax fight, echoes of tobacco battles
February 19, 2020
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.
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Health care general counsels explore pressing health policy and legal issues at Harvard Law School
December 11, 2019
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.
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On the Bookshelf: HLS Authors
December 11, 2019
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.
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A Q&A with Robert Greenwald on ‘getting to zero’ and the success of PEPFAR, 15 years later
October 22, 2019
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.
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A Question of Prevention
August 6, 2019
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.
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One thing to change: Question that status quo
July 29, 2019
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.
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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.
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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.
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Video: Trauma at the Border
March 11, 2019
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.
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Perspectives on gene editing
January 11, 2019
Harvard researchers—including HLS Professor and Petrie-Flom Center Faculty Director Glenn Cohen—and others share their views on key issues in the field.
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A cautionary tale for Silicon Valley
October 9, 2018
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.
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Outbreak Week: How prepared are we for the next health crisis?
October 5, 2018
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.
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Big questions raised by big data
September 20, 2018
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.
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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.
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Petrie-Flom Center launches Project on Precision Medicine, Artificial Intelligence, and the Law (PMAIL)
January 31, 2018
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).
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On the Bookshelf: HLS Authors
December 14, 2017
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.
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Glenn Cohen on animals, AI and morality
December 6, 2017
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.
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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.
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Harvard report compares NFL’s health policies and practices to other pro sports leagues’
May 15, 2017
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.
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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.