Artificial Womb Technology: Some Ethical Considerations

Lunch will start at 12:45pm in VEC 401 followed by the lecture from 1:00–2:00pm.

About the Talk

Dr. Mark Mercuio will briefly review the nuts and bolts and state of the art of artificial womb technology, which is coming soon to the clinical setting in research protocols. He will then discuss ethical concerns and considerations surrounding this technology.

About the Speaker

Mark Mercurio is Professor of Pediatrics, Founding Director of the Program for Biomedical Ethics at Yale School of Medicine, and Founding Director of the Yale Pediatric Ethics Program at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital. For many years, he was Chief of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at Yale, having stepped down from that role in 2022. He received his undergraduate degree in Biochemical Sciences from Princeton University and an MD from Columbia University. He completed Pediatrics Residency and Neonatology Fellowship at Yale. After fellowship, he served for many years as an attending neonatologist at Yale and Founding Director of the Newborn ICU at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, CT, and earned an MA in Philosophy from Brown University, before returning to Yale full time. Dr. Mercurio has for many years been active in neonatology and medical ethics education for residents, fellows, nurses, attending physicians, PA students, medical students, and others. He has been a member of the medical faculty for the Fellowships at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE) since 2010, is a former Chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Bioethics, and is an original co-editor of the American Academy of Pediatrics Resident Curriculum in Bioethics. He is a Fellow of the Hastings Center and member of the American Pediatric Society. Dr. Mercurio is widely published and has been an invited speaker on medical ethics in over a dozen countries and most US states. In 2023, he received the William G. Bartholome Award for Ethical Excellence from the American Academy of Pediatrics. He and his wife Anna live in Branford, Connecticut, and have three grown children.

Please email [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns. More details about Columbia's Center for Clinical Medical Ethics can be found here: https://columbiamedicine.org/ethicscenter/index.html

Host or Publisher Columbia Center for Clinical Medical Ethics