Hastings Conversations

We have the ability to sequence the DNA of every newborn, generating information that could help diagnose diseases and predict conditions that might have a later onset. But should we? In what contexts is sequencing helpful or harmful? On the latest Hastings Conversations podcast, Hastings Center President Mildred Solomon talks with Barbara Koenig, a Hastings Center fellow and director of bioethics at the University of California, San Francisco, about the findings of a major federally-funded research project convened by UCSF in collaboration with The Hastings Center. Koenig delves into the rationale behind the project’s recommendations that all newborns not be sequenced at this time. The findings appear in a recent special report on the ethics of sequencing newborns, published by The Hastings Center, available for free: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/1552146x/2018/48/S2 Hastings podcasts like this one are supported by listeners like you. In fact, 45% of the work that we do is funded by individual donors.