Isabel Brieler, Author at Viterbi Conversations in Ethics

Fall 2021 Weekly News Profile

Apple’s Control of the App Market

Apple has faced a lawsuit over their in-app payment policies, and recently filed an appeal to delay the judge’s decree that they allow app developers to direct users to third-party payment platforms — but do they have an ethical justification for this?

Fall 2021 Weekly News Profile

Sacrificing the Innocent in the Battle Against Climate Change

Isabel Brieler August 30, 2021 Carbon Emissions Clean Energy Climate Change Sustainability

President Biden is pushing for the implementation of CO2 pipelines to help decrease emissions, but if they come at the cost of the disadvantaged communities they travel through, are they worth it?

Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

A Responsible Rollout of the COVID-19 Vaccines

Isabel Brieler April 26, 2021 COVID-19 Johnson & Johnson Vaccinations

The CDC and FDA have recommended a pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over concerns about rare blood-clotting side effects, but given its wide-reaching consequences, was this an ethical decision?

Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

The Implications of the Suez Canal Crisis

Isabel Brieler March 29, 2021 Globalization Shipping Suez Canal Transporation

A single ship has blocked a canal that handles 30% of the globe’s shipping traffic for days (and at the time of writing, is still stuck there). Does this have larger implications for the way the world currently approaches manufacturing and globalization?

Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

Implications of Interplanetary Translocation

Isabel Brieler March 1, 2021 Mars Microbiology NASA Perseverance Space

The recent successful landing of NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars gives us cause to consider the extent to which we are ethically obligated to prevent the “contamination” of other planets with earthly life.

Spring 2021 Weekly News Profile

How Apps are Influencing Reddit’s War with Wall Street

Isabel Brieler February 1, 2021 GameStop Hedge Funds Robinhood Stock Market

2/1/2021 While 2020 was undoubtedly a strange year for the stock market, with industries swinging unprecedentedly up and down due to the COVID-19 pandemic, January…

Fall 2020 Weekly News Profile

Tech Companies Accruing Monopolies that Harken Back to the Days of “Oil Barons and Railroad Tycoons”

Isabel Brieler October 26, 2020 Antitrust DOJ Google Monopoly

10/26/2020 A sixteen-month investigation into tech giants including Facebook, Amazon, Apple, and Google has finally been completed with the filing of a lawsuit against Google by the…

Fall 2020 Weekly News Profile

The Blurred Line Between Corporate and Governmental Interests

Isabel Brieler September 8, 2020 Home Security Police Ring Cameras Surveillance

9/8/2020 Amazon’s Ring home security company is no stranger to controversy. In 2018, it was revealed that footage, both from outside and inside customer’s homes,…

Summer 2020 Weekly News Profile

Prioritizing Profit in a Pandemic

Isabel Brieler July 6, 2020 COVID-19 Pharmaceutical Remdesivir

7/6/2020 The race to develop a legitimate medication or vaccine for COVID-19 has dominated the pharmaceutical industry for the past several months as the virus…

Current Issue

Fall 2021 Featured Volume 5 Issue 2

Curing the Human Condition: The Ethics of Editing Our Own DNA

Connor Powers October 26, 2021

Thirty-two million Americans currently have health conditions linked to genetic defects, nearly all of which can be corrected by genetic editing with CRISPR-Cas9 technology. Opponents of gene editing abound, from those who point to their potential role in increasing the privilege gap between the rich and poor, to people who object morally to the idea of humans meddling with their own DNA, to pharmaceutical companies whose profits would be threatened by a reduced need for medication. However, after analysis of the ethicality of genetic editing technology with the frameworks of common good, utilitarianism, and fairness, it is evident that the eventual species-scale benefits that will be brought about by the technology outweigh its risks and flaws.

Fall 2021 Featured Volume 5 Issue 2

Animal Testing as a Means of Survival

Isabelle Lau October 26, 2021

The morality of animal testing has been widely debated since its origins in Ancient Greece. Testing on animals allows the evaluation of new drugs and procedures without harming humans but raises the question of whether animals should be forcefully used for human gain. This paper recommends that animal testing only be used for approved medical research necessary for human survival and when all other animal-free methods are inadequate. If researchers need to use animal testing, they must scrupulously follow guidelines to minimize animal pain and suffering.

Fall 2021 Featured Volume 5 Issue 2

The Ethical Challenges of Neural Technology

Sabrina Sy October 26, 2021

Neural engineering is an emerging interdisciplinary field that utilizes engineering techniques to discover the function and manipulate the behavior of the human brain. Current research in neural engineering focuses on the development of treatments for neurological disorders that deplete the health of the nervous system and explores how the nervous system operates in both health and disease. Neural engineering has huge potential to relieve suffering in those who have lost functionality in their nervous systems, but the further development of this technology raises a number of ethical questions about identity, privacy, responsibility, and justice. These questions must be thoroughly addressed in order to guarantee the most responsible future development and use of neural engineering technologies.

Fall 2021 Featured Volume 5 Issue 2

Biohacking: The Ethical Implications of Democratizing Biotechnology

Lindsey Marks October 26, 2021

Biohacking is a Do-It-Yourself movement that encourages experimenting with biotechnology tools to find ways to improve one’s health and enhance one’s natural capabilities, and many in the movement advocate for the democratization of scientific tools so that everyone can participate in such scientific discovery. However, some biohackers take their experimentation to the extreme, and not all of them seem to understand the responsibility and risks associated with the scientific methods they employ. As a result, tension between the biohacking community and the professional science community has grown as biohacking continues to increase in popularity. Though the biohacking movement makes salient points about the way ethical precautions and regulation slow innovation, this paper explores the need for codes of ethics governing the pursuit of scientific discovery and how biohackers and traditional, trained scientists can reach common ground.

Fall 2021 Featured Volume 5 Issue 2

Why We Should Embrace Artificial Wombs

Timothy Wang October 26, 2021

A human fetus developing outside of a uterus may seem like science fiction at first, but artificial wombs are quickly becoming a reality. They’ve already been tested successfully on lambs, and some researchers predict they’ll be ready for human use in less than a decade. Despite criticism from opponents who see artificial wombs as “unnatural” or believe they will be harnessed to create genetically modified “designer babies,” this paper argues that the technology, once proven safe, is wholly ethical – and in certain cases, it may even be unethical not to use it.

Weekly News Profile

Fall 2021 Featured Weekly News Profile

Surgeons Perform First Successful Pig-to-Human Transplant Using a Genetically-Engineered Animal

Sabrina Sy October 25, 2021

In a revolutionary feat of science, medicine, and engineering, surgeons at NYU have successfully transplanted a pig kidney into a human. However, as biotech companies rush to develop suitable animal organs for transplants, we must address the ethical concerns behind xenotransplantation.

Fall 2021 Weekly News Profile

Apple’s Control of the App Market

Isabel Brieler October 11, 2021

Fall 2021 Weekly News Profile

The Third Dose Debate

Teagan Ampe October 4, 2021

Some people in the U.S. are now eligible for a booster COVID vaccine, but is it ethical to get a third dose while vast swaths of the globe have yet to receive their first?

Fall 2021 Weekly News Profile

The Push for Universal Standards in the European Union

Michael DeLucia September 27, 2021

The European Union wants to standardize the connectors used in smartphones and many mobile devices — while this may help consumers in the short term, the jury is still out on the long-term efficacy of this policy.