Heart and Soul

The lead article in this January-February 2021 issue—the first of the Hastings Center Report's fiftieth year publication—does not set out to change medicine. It tries instead understand it. In “A Heart without Life: Artificial Organs and Lived Body,” Mary Jean Walker draws on work phenomenology empirical research with people who have received artificial heart devices argue that such may two very different effects how a patient experiences body self. Several other pieces issue address ongoing slew care health policy problems surrounding Covid-19 pandemic, special report titled Democracy Crisis: Civic Learning Reconstruction Common Purpose considers requirements for public involvement policy-making about bioethical issues.