Deliberative democracy, social justice and the Black Opticon: a discussion with Dr. Anita Allen

Bioethics in the Margins

Kirk and Amelia had the pleasure of speaking with Dr. Anita L. Allen, the Henry R. Silverman Professor of Law and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode, they discuss Dr. Allen’s experiences working on President Obama’s Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues where she engaged in deliberative democracy approaches to explore challenges with advances in biomedicine, technology and synthetic biology. A highlight of her time there included a report titled “Ethically Impossible” that documented and acknowledged gross human research subject abuses that occurred in Guatemala from 1946-1948, overseen by the US Public Health Service. (https://bioethicsarchive.georgetown.edu/pcsbi/sites/default/files/Ethically%20Impossible%20(with%20linked%20historical%20documents)%202.7.13.pdf). Other aspects of Dr. Allen’s prolific career that they discuss include her work on the concept of privacy, reproductive justice and racial justice concerns in what Dr. Allen has termed “The Black Opticon” (https://www.yalelawjournal.org/forum/dismantling-the-black-opticon).

Dr. Allen is an internationally renowned philosopher with over 120 articles and chapters published at the intersection of bioethics, privacy and data protection law, women’s rights, and diversity in higher education. She is a graduate of Harvard Law, currently serving on the Board of the National Constitution Center, the Future of Privacy Forum and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.