Deliberative democracy, social justice and the Black Opticon: a discussion with Dr. Anita Allen

Kirk and Amelia had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Anita L. Allen, the Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode, they discuss Dr. Allen’s experiences working on President Obama’s Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues  where she engaged in deliberative democracy approaches to explore challenges with advances in biomedicine, technology and synthetic biology. A highlight of her time there  included a report titled “Ethically Impossible”  that documented and acknowledged gross human research subject abuses that occurred in Guatemala from 1946-1948, overseen by the US Public Health Service.  (