One highlight of the new collaboration is the inclusion of Yale faculty on Hastings Center projects, and Hastings scholars on Yale projects, as well as the development of new joint projects. The program allows for an annual scholarly exchange of library privileges between Yale's library system and the Robert Morison Library at The Hastings Center, joint hosting of visiting scholars, and jointly-sponsored student programs.

The Yale-Hastings Program in Ethics and Health Policy will hold an inaugural public event on health care reform at Yale in the spring.
The Hastings Center, founded in 1969, is the world's first bioethics research institute. The nonpartisan Center is located in Garrison, New York, with a satellite office in Washington, DC. It has a robust research program, with federally and privately funded grants supporting projects that examine the impact of advances in medicine and the life sciences on individuals, families, and communities.


Current projects include research into the role of medical technology in rising health care costs, values in health care reform, ethical guidelines for end-of-life care, the use of psychiatric medication in children, sports enhancement, and synthetic biology. Thanks to generous support from the Ford Foundation, the Center in 2007 established a strong public affairs arm to enhance its reach to journalists, policymakers, and the public. As part of this effort, From Birth to Death and Bench to Clinic: The Hastings Center Bioethics Briefing Book for Journalists, Policymakers, and Campaigns is available free on the Center's Web site.

Yale's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics draws on the resources of the University, including its libraries, students, and faculty, as well as its Schools of Medicine, Divinity, Law, and Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Founded as a committee in 1997 and granted Center status in 2005, the Interdisciplinary Bioethics Center at Yale engages students and faculty in discussions about the "social and political responses to science and technology that have greatly improved life for many people but made life worse for others, and rendered our collective survival as a species problematical," said Smith. Supported in part by the Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation, scholars at the Bioethics Center study the ethical and social implications of biomedical and technological research, with a strong focus on religion and the environment, as well as on care for the dying, aging, and risk assessment.

The Hastings Center is a nonpartisan bioethics research institution dedicated to bioethics and the public interest since 1969. The Center is a pioneer in collaborative interdisciplinary research and dialogue on the ethical and social impact of advances in health care and the life sciences. The Center draws on a worldwide network of experts to frame and examine issues that inform professional practice, public conversation, and social policy. Learn more about The Hastings Center at: www.thehastingscenter.org

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