Erik Parens

Erik Parens is Senior Research Scholar at The Hastings Center, where he investigates the ethical implications of using technologies such as psychopharmacology, surgery, and gene editing to shape ourselves and our children. He also investigates how emerging sciences such as genetics and neuroscience shape our understanding of ourselves as persons. He is the author or editor of five books, as well as numerous articles and commentaries for academic journals and general-interest publications. His...See more

Erik Parens is Senior Research Scholar at The Hastings Center, where he investigates the ethical implications of using technologies such as psychopharmacology, surgery, and gene editing to shape ourselves and our children. He also investigates how emerging sciences such as genetics and neuroscience shape our understanding of ourselves as persons. He is the author or editor of five books, as well as numerous articles and commentaries for academic journals and general-interest publications. His most recent book is Shaping Our Selves: On Technology, Flourishing and a Habit of Thinking (Oxford University Press, 2014). Josephine Johnston is Director of Research and a Research Scholar at The Hastings Center. She works on the ethics of emerging biotechnologies, particularly in human reproduction, psychiatry, and genetics. Her scholarly work has appeared in medical, scientific, policy, law, and bioethics journals, including New England Journal of Medicine , Science , Nature , Hastings Center Report , and Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics . She edited, with Thomas H Murray, Trust and Integrity in Biomedical Research: The Case of Financial Conflicts of Interest (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010). She has also written for Stat News , New Republic , Time , Washington Post , and The Scientist . See less