UNC Center for Bioethics

In this talk, Justin Clapp examines how familiar bioethics language—such as framing medical “decisions” around patients’ “values” and “preferences”—actually functions in real clinical settings, including surgical clinics and intensive care units. Drawing on ethnographic research, he illustrates how these concepts are often taken up in ways that diverge significantly from their theoretical intenti…

The UNC Center for Bioethics hosted a regional bioethics workshop on Friday, April 10, 2026. Participants came from North Carolina institutions, including Duke University, Eastern Carolina University, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH), North Carolina State University, UNC-Charlotte, and Wake Forest University.  The event focused on participants’ works in progress and g…

On April 9, 2026, the Animal Studies Project, with support from the Center for Bioethics, Parr Center for Ethics, and Philosophy Department hosted a panel discussion on animal research featuring distinguished speakers discussing history, policy, and ethics on this complex topic. The panel was organized around the recent publication of Lab Dog: A Beagle and … Read more

The PREPARE (PRomoting Equity for Pregnant Adolescents in REsearch) project has seen exciting activity recently, with its team sharing work through several posters and presentations. We showcased three posters at the International Workshop on Pediatrics & HIV, followed by both a poster and an oral presentation at the International AIDS Conference (IAS). We’re also presenting … Read more The post …

UNC OB/GYN Launches Rural Fellowship to Combat Maternity Care Deserts. Dr. Kavita Arora, MD, MBE, MS, director of the Division of General Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Midwifery, will serve as the inaugural fellowship director. The post Kavita Arora serves as the first fellowship director for the UNC OB/GYN Rural Fellowship. appeared first on UNC Center for Bioethics .

The presentation was part of MCL Grand Rounds, hosted by the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF, on June 3. ▶️ Watch the recording of “Challenging Allergies.” The post Jill A. Fisher presented “Challenging Allergies: The Search for a Magic Bullet for Pediatric Food Allergies” appeared first on UNC Center for Bioethics .

Jill Fisher was awarded a Spring 2025 Making a Difference Grant from The Greenwall Foundation for her project “Challenging Fear of Anaphylaxis: An Ethical Framework for Implementing Oral Food Challenges in Allergy Clinical Practice.” Fisher said, “There is a real-world need for practical solutions to bioethics dilemmas in pediatric food allergy, and this study will … Read more The post Jill Fishe…

Rebecca Walker’s new book, Of Mice and Primates: Virtue Ethics and Animal Research, is out now from Oxford University Press. The ethics of research on animals has historically been viewed through the lens of welfare, and whether animals have rights. Is the pain and distress experienced by animals worth the gain in scientific knowledge? Alternatively, … Read more The post Rebecca Walker Publishes …

Jill A. Fisher is a co-author, with colleagues, of a new editorial in The American Journal of Bioethics. The authors consider the question of “undue influence on potential research participants to enroll in studies.” They highlight the “‘payment conservatism'” of many oversight bodies. The authors suggest that minimally compensating research participants is “unfair and does … Read more The post F…

Jill A. Fisher is the author of a new article in Social Science & Medicine. Fisher analyzes findings from her ethnographic research, including semi-structured interviews. Based on her findings, Fisher describes parents’ and children’s experiences in food allergy clinical trials. Fisher argues that “affluent parents willingly accept a form of biomedicalization of their children that … Read more Th…