playing god?

When journalist Esmé Deprez receives a text from her father, Ron Deprez, asking for help to die, she enters one of the most ethically fraught spaces in modern medicine: Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD). This episode explores what it means to assist a loved one’s death under MAiD law—and how personal compassion collides with professional and societal ethics.

This episode features:
Esmé E. Deprez: Writer and investigative journalist. 
Jeffrey Kahn, PhD, MPH: Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director of the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.
Jennifer Eitingon, MD: Medical Director of Monument Health Hospice and Inpatient Palliative Care Attending Physician.

You can see photos and read more about Esmé and Ron Deprez’s story in her 2021 essay, “Death With Dignity: How I Helped My Dad Die.” 

“playing god?” is a podcast by the iDeas Lab at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. 

To read a transcript of this episode, visit the iDeas Lab website at https://bioethics.jhu.edu/pgs2e1 

The Johns Hopkins University Sesquicentennial is proud to support this podcast. JHU celebrates 150 years of pioneering education and research—advancing knowledge to meet the challenges of every generation. Learn more at 150.jhu.edu.

Life and death decisions. Difficult tradeoffs. “playing god?” explores ethical dilemmas in health and medicine through the first-person stories of people who have lived them. Brought to you by the Dracopoulos-Bloomberg iDeas Lab at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. New episodes weekly starting May 19.

Season Two of playing god? is coming soon. Here's a preview of what's in the works.

Back in the 1960s, a committee of seven Seattle residents met regularly to decide which patients with chronic kidney disease were “worthy” of life-saving dialysis.  Whoever wasn’t selected by the committee would likely die within months. An exposé of this so-called “God Squad” helped spark the formation of a new field: bioethics. In this prequel to playing god?, we’ll find out how this committee made life-and-death decisions, and why something like it is unlikely to happen again. 
Show Notes:
This episode features interviews with: 
Richard M. Mizelle, Jr., Associate Professor of History, University of Houston
Kate Butler, Assistant Professor of Nephrology, University of Washington School of Medicine
The God Squad was just one of many notable cases that led to the formation of the field of bioethics. The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute, has compiled a timeline of many of the most famous cases and their impact. Check it out here. 
The Berman Institute has also collected oral histories– first hand accounts of the doctors, philosophers, lawyers and other scholars who were involved in many of these cases. You can explore that collection here. 
To learn more about the ethics issues raised in this episode, visit the Berman Institute’s episode guide. 
The Greenwall Foundation seeks to make bioethics integral to decisions in health care, policy, and research. Learn more at greenwall.org.

In this episode we head into the future to learn about a controversial technology that could change the face of reproduction. Researchers are developing a technology called in vitro gametogenesis (IVG), which can reprogram human cells–like a skin cell–to become eggs or sperm. With IVG we could reach a future where anyone could produce either eggs or sperm, in potentially limitless quantities. This could open up a whole world of new options for how humans reproduce. Startup companies are working to bring this science to the public in ways that bypass the usual research routes for new reproductive technologies. When would it be ethically acceptable to try IVG to make a baby? How can we ensure the technology will be used ethically, including how it should be regulated? 
Show Notes:
This episode features interviews with:
Amander Clark, Professor, Molecular, Cell and Developmental Biology,  University of California, Los Angeles
I. Glenn Cohen, James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law, Deputy Dean and Faculty Director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics, Harvard Law School
In 2023, the National Academies held a meeting to discuss the scientific, ethical, and legal implications of IVG. You can watch this meeting and learn more about IVG here. 
To learn more about the ethics issues raised in this episode, visit the Berman Institute’s episode guide. 
The Greenwall Foundation seeks to make bioethics integral to decisions in health care, policy, and research. Learn more at greenwall.org.