Bioethics
The field of bioethics developed in the 1960s as a response to a lack of accountability around the use of human and animal subjects in scientific research. Today, bioethics encompasses a broad range of perspectives. These range from contemporary public policy issues (such as the ethics of gene editing, the use of DNA in forensics, the drug legalization debate, and the social implications of unequal access to health care) to more theoretical investigations of the social role of science, the relationship between genomics and personal identity, and the boundaries of life itself.
Faculty at UCSC involved in bioethics include sociologists, historians, and philosophers of science and medicine, biomedical researchers, and scholars of feminist theory and critical race and ethnic studies. Together, they examine the myriad ways that the biological sciences shape many of the most pressing ethical and social challenges of the present.
Faculty
