Moral Nuances in Broad Policies

In the September-October 2024 issue of the Hastings Center Report, two pieces examine attitudes toward and policy on medical aid in dying (MAID). An essay by Anna Elsner and colleagues analyzes terminology, including euphemistic language, used in Canada and other countries to refer to this practice. The authors recommend explicit public discussion of the values at stake in the use of this terminology. An article by Em Walsh concerns a subset of people who could become eligible for MAID under Canada's proposed expansion of eligibility for this assistance: people suffering from poverty-induced depression. Cautioning that the expansion of PAD could exacerbate inequality, Walsh offers six recommendations for policy-makers’ consideration. The issue's lead article, by Eric Juengst and colleagues, focuses on governance issues that could be raised by human genome editing research that aims to strengthen individuals’ resistance to disease beyond what is regarded as the human functional range. Juengst et al. identify and analyze three potential principles that could help policy-makers navigate what can be a blurry line between goals of prevention and enhancement in human genome editing research.