IUCB Newsletter, May 2026

A message from Peter Schwartz

Hi all: Thanks for your interest and involvement in the IU Center for Bioethics and best wishes for the end of the term and upcoming summer. In Spring term 2026, the IUCB certainly achieved its goal of being a “gathering place for discussion, education, research, and collaboration in bioethics and related fields,” as our website says.

In addition to the rest of our teaching and outreach activities, the IUCB hosted two well-attended talks by outside speakers, IU Bioethics Grand Rounds in March with Justin Clapp, PhD, MPH, from Univ. of Pennsylvania, and the Silvers annual lecture on Holocaust, Genocide, and Contemporary Bioethics in April presented by Claudia Krebs, MD, PhD, from the University of British Columbia (see below).

Check out more news below and consider attending our upcoming TREATs talk this week, also listed below, on defining “minimal risk” in research, presented by Mark Fox, MD, PhD.

Please reach out to me or Seamus Donahue (seadonah@iu.edu), our program manager, with any questions or anything we can help with.

Thanks again and be in touch. Best, Peter

IUCB Semester in Review

2026 Dr. William S. Silvers Holocaust, Genocide, and Contemporary Bioethics Lectureship

The Indiana University Center for Bioethics invited Claudia Krebs, MD, PhD, of the University of British Columbia to present for the annual Dr. William S. Silvers, Holocaust, Genocide, and Contemporary Bioethics Lectureship. Dr. Krebs presented, “Bodies in Sight: Anatomy Atlases, Historical Violence, and Contemporary Bioethics,” in which she explored how anatomy atlases have rendered certain bodies visible, usable, and disposable. By describing how the Pernkopf and Spanner atlases were created from the bodies of people executed by the Nazis, Dr. Krebs examined how such legacies have objectified the human body and how they continue to shape power dynamics in medicine today.

If you missed the talk, it is available to view on our YouTube channel.

 

 

Bioethics: The Ethics of Sport 


In lieu of IU's football national championship, IUCB director Peter Schwartz, MD, PhD, replaced our usual January TREATS talk with an event to honor the championship game between IU and the University of Miami. Friend of the IUCB and professor emeritus of the University of Miami, Kenneth Goodman, PhD, joined Dr. Schwartz to face off and discuss some hard hitting questions in the intersection of bioethics and the ethics of sport. 

The talk included the discussion of ethical issues such as the use of performance enhancing drugs in athletics, the line of when sports become more harmful for an athlete's health than good, some of the problems surrounding concussions in football, and much more. Although the performance may not have been as impressive as Fernando Mendoza, the ethical face off is certainly worth the watch. 

You can watch the full discussion on the IUCB's website. 

IUCB Director and Faculty Publish Open Peer Commentaries in the American Journal of Bioethics

IUCB Director, Peter Schwartz, MD, PhD, and Faculty Investigators, Colin Halverson, PhD, and Josh Rager, MD, MA, MS , recently published open peer commentaries in the American Journal of Bioethics. Responding to a paper which argues for the inclusion of personal utility into the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) framework for genetic testing, Drs. Halverson, Schwartz, and Rager all call into question the limitations of such a view.

Dr. Halverson takes a more moderate view in his commentary, acknowledging that personal utility is indeed morally relevant, but arguing that it’s limited in the sense that it must be considered within the context of distributive justice and medical resources. Drs. Schwartz and Rager, on the other hand, adopt a somewhat more pessimistic approach, claiming that one must also consider the personal disutilities in such cases. For instance, in screening for lung cancer there are certain burdens, discomforts, or risks involved.

You can read Dr. Halverson’s full commentary here, and Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Rager’s full commentary here.

For more information you can read the full interview here and you can read Dr. Halverson's full study here. 

Colin Halverson, PhD

Notable Publications from Our Faculty

Social Risk Phenotypes Are Strongly Associated With Hepatocellular Carcinoma Outcomes: A Statewide Cohort Study Using Latent Class Analysis - Lauren Nephew, MD, et al., Clinical and Translational Gastroenterology 

This article discusses the study of the effects of social factors for 4,877 Hoosiers diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Six social factors were identified as social risk phenotypes, including the patients' location, insurance, and race, all of which can create differences in treatment, diagnosis, and survival. 

Asking Patients on Principle: Public Deliberation About Waiver for Modification of Consent - Peter Schwartz, MD, PhD, The American Journal of Bioethics

Certain bioethicists have recently argued that patients may be ethically enrolled in studies with a modified (shortened) informed consent. In this open peer commentary, Dr. Schwartz offers support for the idea. However, Dr. Schwartz also points out that patients generally prefer full informed consent. One step Dr. Schwartz proposes is to conduct a public deliberation where patients decide when it is ethically acceptable to stray from the traditional methods of opt-in consent.  

Legal and Ethical Issues in Periviable Decision-Making in the Current Moment - Brownsyne Tucker Edmonds, Erika Rose Cheng, Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics

Periviable births are births that occur between 20 and 25 weeks of gestation and for which infants are at the threshold of viability. In this article, Tucker Edmonds and Cheng explore the complex ethical and legal landscape surrounding parental medical decision-making for periviable infants in the US, and advocate for the definition of legal parenthood to include a range of non-traditional family structures as current definitions are disharmonic with archaic state and federal laws. 

Painful Subjects: The Sociogenic Processing of Pain in Individuals with Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes - Tom Doyle, Samantha Vershaw, Colin Halverson, Social Science and Medicine - Mental Health

The chronic pain experienced by those with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) has a negative effect on their overall quality of life, yet this population often experiences doubt and invalidation from clinicians in regard to their pain. In this qualitative study, Doyle and team interviewed 39 individuals with EDS to see how doubt plays a role in their self-perceptions of pain. They found that the participants' experiences were mediated by different social dynamics, leading to a lack of willingness to acknowledge their pain or even discounting it entirely. 

May 7 • 12-1PM

TREATS: Defining Minimal Risk 

Online via Zoom