In this presentation, Dr. George Yancy argues that whiteness is both an opaque and systemic structure. In short, to be white, to be embodied as white, raises the question not only of white privilege, but the question of white racism and how it is that racism is an insidious phenomenon that is replicated in the lives of white people. We can all agree that white racism is unethical. But what if it is not possible to make a clean exit, as it were, from the bind of whiteness? What if to be white means that one's ethical state, as Peggy McIntosh has suggested, is not completely dependent upon one's ethical will? This raises not only the theme of the unethical structure of whiteness, but the way in which white people (consciously or unconsciously) perpetuate racialized injustice and thereby are unethical.  

George D. Yancy, PhD
Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, Emory College of Arts and Sciences

The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, signed into law on June 22, 2009, gives the United States Food and Drug Administration authority to regulate the manufacture, distribution, and marketing of tobacco products. Regulation occurs with a goal of improving the nation’s health, and must be supported by the best and most current scientific evidence and research. In September 2018, the NIH and FDA funded a second round of Tobacco Centers of Regulatory Science (TCORS). Dr. Andrew Strasser is Principal Investigator of the UPenn TCORS, and with colleagues across Penn, Rutgers, Georgetown and Wake Forest Universities, conducts tobacco policy focused research on the advertising, marketing, labeling, use and exposure of combustible tobacco products. He will present his research on nicotine product standards, tobacco advertising, and packaging warning labels that inform tobacco control and regulatory science. 

Andrew A. Strasser, PhD
Research Professor of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine  

Research funding bodies in Europe and North America increasingly encourage or require grantees to engage patients not simply as research participants but as partners in all phases of research from topic generation to the dissemination of study results. Patient engagement has been said to improve the relevance, quality, and impact of research, but evidence of these benefits remains limited. This presentation will explore some of the challenges of evaluating the effects of patient engagement in research and also consider the argument that patient engagement in research is intrinsically justified regardless of its effects.

Matthew McCoy, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

The challenges of balancing scientific rigor and ethical concerns in community-engaged research are unique and complex. Ethical issues can arise in terms of methodology, research implementation, and practical aspects of community-based research. This talk will introduce ethical issues related to communities/stakeholders, research participants, and professional relationships with illustrations from case studies and an introduction to useful resources.

Karen Glanz, PhD, MPH
George A. Weiss University Professor
Perelman School of Medicine and School of Nursing

Supplemental readings and commentary:

• Reardon, J. The Postgenomic Condition.
• Yudell, M. et al. Taking race out of human genetics.
• Sirugo, G. et al. The missing diversity in human genetic studies.

Sarah Tishkoff, PhD
David and Lyn Silfen University Professor,
Departments of Genetics & Biology, Perelman School of Medicine

Commentary by Kellie Owens, PhD
Fellow, Medical Ethics & Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine

Do you think institutional review boards (IRBs) “work”? What does that mean and how would we know? It turns out that evaluating IRB quality and effectiveness beyond superficial measurements related to compliance and efficiency is remarkably challenging. Nonetheless, it is essential to determining whether the system’s overall benefits outweigh its burdens, as well as what adjustments might be in order. In this lecture, Holly Fernandez Lynch describes the problem and introduces several novel approaches currently being pursued by the Consortium to Advance Effective Research Ethics Oversight (AEREO).

Holly Fernandez Lynch, JD, MBe
John Russell Dickson, MD Presidential Assistant
Professor of Medical Ethics, Medical Ethics & Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine

The controversy about the gene edited babies in China happens to have coincided with increasing tensions between the US and China and intensified competition in the life sciences, including legal action against some Chinese scientists based in the US. In this talk I sketch out the background geopolitical issues that have received little attention but that provide context for the regulation of CRISPR and related technologies.

Jonathan D. Moreno, PhD
David and Lyn Silfen University Professor of Ethics,
Medical Ethics and Health Policy, Perelman School of Medicine

Informed consent for clinical research in the context of acute and emergent illness is widely recognized as challenging and is often not possible. There is, however, a wide spectrum of acute and emergent conditions and a similarly wide range of potential for patients and surrogates to engage in decisions about research enrollment. Dr. Dickert will focus on research designed to understand and integrate patients’ and surrogates’ perspectives on consent for clinical trials in the context of acute myocardial infarction and stroke. He will argue that involving patients and surrogates in enrollment decisions in many emergency situations is not pointless despite important limitations that must be recognized.


Neal Dickert, MD, PhD, FACC
Assistant Professor, Emory University School of Medicine
Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology, ECCRI
Emory University Rollins School of Public Health,
Department of Epidemiology, Emory Center for Ethics

Commentary by Benjamin S. Abella, MD, MPhil, FAHA
Professor and Vice Chair for Research
Director, Center for Resuscitation Science
Department of Emergency Medicine
Perelman School of Medicine