The Hastings Center is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit bioethics research institute founded in 1969. The Center's mission is to address fundamental ethical issues in the areas of health, medicine, and the environment as they affect individuals, communities, and societies.
To achieve this mission, the Center has established four goals:
- To pursue interdisciplinary research and education that includes both theory and practice.
- To engage a broad audience of thoughtful people in the work of the Center.
- To collaborate with policy makers, in the private as well as the public sphere, to identify and analyze the ethical dimensions of their work.
- To strengthen the international dimensions of the Center’s work.
Much of the Center’s research addresses bioethics issues in three broad areas: care and decision making at the end of life, public health priorities, and new and emerging technologies. The Center draws on a world-wide network of experts, including an elected association of leading researchers influential in bioethics called Hastings Center Fellows. Research is carried out by interdisciplinary teams that convene to frame and examine issues that inform professional practice, public conversation, and social policy.
The Hastings Center Report and IRB: Ethics & Human Research bring the best scholarship and commentary in bioethics to members and other readers worldwide. Center research scholars direct research projects, write and speak on a variety of topics, serve as consultants, and assist members of the press.
Intellectual life at the Center is enhanced by a visiting scholars program. Staff and visitors are served by The Morison Library.
Research grants, charitable contributions, and income from a modest reserve fund support the Center's work.
Annual Activities Reports