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Josephine Johnston,
a lawyer trained in New Zealand with a Master's degree in bioethics
and health law from the University of Otago, joined the Hastings Center
staff as Associate for Ethics, Law, and Society on August 1, 2003.
Before coming to the Hastings Center, Ms. Johnston worked on ethical
and legal issues in gene therapy and stem cell research at Dalhousie
University's Department of Bioethics in Halifax, Canada, where she
was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Stem
Cell Network of Canada. She also spent a year as the research assistant
for the NIH grant "Ethnicity, Citizenship, Family: Identity after
the Human Genome Project" at the University of Minnesota's Center
for Bioethics. She has taught a variety of ethics and law classes
in the medicine, dentistry, and law schools at Minnesota and the University
of Otago. Before undertaking her Master's, she practiced law in both
New Zealand and Germany.
Ms. Johnston’s Master's thesis considered the possible impact
of the criminal law on persons performing extreme body modification,
specifically healthy limb amputations. She has written on the progress
of human gene transfer and undertaken a survey of Canadian IVF clinics
to determine the number of embryos available for research in that
country. She is co-editor of a special issue of Developing World Bioethics
dealing with the impact of genetics on identity issues.
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The debate over stem cell research provides a rich opportunity
to explore the relationships between science, medicine, law,
values, and public policy. In this course students will explore
the science and medical potential of stem cells and current
federal and state policy on stem cell research, as well as the
moral and religious arguments for and against the research.
Students will then consider some of the legal and policy issues
that arise as stem cell research moves forward, including issues
regarding the roles of fertility clinics and physicians, recruitment
and compensation of egg and embryo donors, and questions of
justice and access.
University of Oklahoma undergraduates: This class qualifies
as upper division Gen Ed Western Civilization and Culture credit.
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The Class Reading List: (These books and articles supplied
by OSLEP)
• President’s Council on Bioethics,
Monitoring Stem Cell Research, Washington DC,
2004, available online at: http://www.bioethics.gov/reports/stemcell/index.html,
(414 pages).
• The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debate: Science,
Ethics, and Public Policy, by Holland, LeBacqz,
Zoloth, MIT Press 2001 (245 pages).
• Reading Packet
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