Lauren Wilson awarded Yudof fellowship

We are delighted to announce that Philosophy PhD candidate and MCPS graduate student fellow, Lauren Wilson, has been awarded one of the Yudof fellowships for the 2021-2022 academic year.
Preliminary policy recommendations regarding the ethical use of CRISPR for human germline editing do not sufficiently consider the concerns of marginalized groups. Lauren's research project "CRISPR, Gatekeeping, and Genetic Determinism: Foregrounding Disabled and Marginalized Voices in Gene Editing Policies" draws on interdisciplinary sources from biology, philosophy, and disability studies to create new recommendations for using CRISPR in human reproduction that account for disabled and marginalized communities who will be disproportionately affected. These policy recommendations will address two areas of concern within the CRISPR technology literature: (1) problematic reliance on deterministic reasoning in genetics; and, (2) subtle gatekeeping ensured by current policy through “morbidity” stipulations.