Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics

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Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics

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Petrie-Flom Center (PFC) — A Harvard center dedicated to interdisciplinary research and debate of In 2005, with a generous gift from Joseph H.

Flom ’48 and the Petrie Foundation, the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics was founded to respond to the need for leading legal scholarship in these fields.

10/14/2026

PFC Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen recently co-wrote a perspective in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM Group) addressing gaps in the World Health Organization's (WHO) definition of infertility, which inhibits equitable access to fertility care.

The piece, co-authored by Paula Amato, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of Oregon Health & Science University's division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility, argues that the WHO’s definition of fertility as “a disease of the male and female reproductive system defined as the failure to achieve a pregnancy after 12 months of regular unprotected sexual in*******se,” effectively excludes LGBTQ+ people and single people without eggs or s***m who also face fertility challenges.

The authors suggest that the definition should be more expansive and cover the need for medical intervention to achieve a successful pregnancy for LGBTQ+ and single people.

Because eligibility requirements for coverage of fertility care in the United States still often disadvantage LGBTQ+ and single people, there has been growing legal and policy pressure to eliminate discriminatory definitions of infertility. Of insurance plans that cover fertility treatments, many continue to define infertility as the inability to conceive after 6 to 12 months of unprotected heterosexual in*******se. As a result, LGBTQ+ and single people must often pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for multiple donor-insemination cycles before becoming eligible for insurance coverage, whereas infertile people in heterosexual relationships can qualify for coverage immediately.

Read the article here: https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2603604

09/30/2026

Join us Oct. 29 to discuss climate change as a health crisis, exploring how international courts are shaping climate justice: https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/judicial-dialogues-health-climate-change/

The second panel explores how domestic courts are shaping the constitutional architecture of climate governance through standards of review, evidentiary approaches, remedies, and dialogue with international and regional jurisprudence.

Attend in person or online; please join us for the full day or for what your schedule permits.

We are proud to organize this event with our co-sponsors: The Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, the Walter de Gruyter Foundation, the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, the FXB Center for Health & Human Rights at Harvard University, the Harvard Global Health Institute, the Emmet Environmental Law Center at Harvard Law School, and the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies.

09/23/2026

🗓️ ONE WEEK FROM TODAY: Join us for a lunchtime discussion of legal practice at the intersection of health, ethics, and technology, including biopharma and the FDA, access to medical care and healthy food, and the changing law of neuroscience. Registration is required: https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/what-is-health-law/

Harvard Law School faculty and alumni from the private and public sectors will discuss their own career paths and describe the key interdisciplinary questions that define the practice of health law today and in the future.

09/22/2026

Join us Oct. 29 to discuss climate change as a health crisis, exploring how international courts are shaping climate justice: https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/judicial-dialogues-health-climate-change/

The first panel of the day invites international judges to describe emerging standards in this evolving field. The discussion will be moderated by Gerald L. Neuman, Harvard Law School Professor and Director of the Human Rights Program.

Attend in person or online; please join us for the full day or for what your schedule permits.

We are proud to organize this event with our co-sponsors: the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University, the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University, the Walter de Gruyter Foundation, the Human Rights Program at Harvard Law School, the FXB Center for Health & Human Rights at Harvard University, the Harvard Global Health Institute, and the Emmet Environmental Law Center at Harvard Law School.

09/15/2026

Join us at our student open house, a lunchtime discussion featuring Harvard Law School faculty and alumni from the private and public sectors. They'll discuss their own career paths and describe the key interdisciplinary questions that define the practice of health law today and in the future.

Panelists: Emily Broad-Leib, Timothy Ehrlich, Catherine Pattanayak, Carmel Shachar, and Francis Shen
Moderator: Susannah Baruch

RSVP here: https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/what-is-health-law/

09/11/2026

In the Yale Law & Policy Review, Petrie-Flom Center executive director Susannah Baruch writes with Carmel Shachar and Louise King about encroachment on the medical profession’s ability to self-regulate. Documenting cases like abortion provision, gender-affirming care, Medicaid provider choice, and vaccine policy, the authors warn that political trends are undermining evidence-based decision-making, professional autonomy, and long-standing practices of peer oversight. Citing the risks of worsening care and patient outcomes, they argue for rebuilding trust across dissenting views and recommitting to research using scientific methods.

Read "Encroachment on the Medical Profession” here: https://yalelawandpolicy.org/encroachment-medical-profession

09/01/2026

A new post on Bill of Health explores how the increase in private equity ownership of hospitals has led to higher costs and lower quality care.

"By loosening charity care mandates, granting access to Wall Street tax-exempt debt markets, permitting for-profit corporate subsidiaries, incentivizing patent commercialization, and more, federal policy created incentives for nonprofit hospitals to prioritize market share, capital accumulation, and corporate financialization,” writes John McDonough, a professor of practice at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. McDonough is also author of the new book, America’s Wrong Turn: US Healthcare in the Neoliberal Era.

The full blog post is here: https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2026/08/21/how-did-so-many-nonprofit-hospitals-become-so-profitable/

08/28/2026

On Oct. 29 the Petrie-Flom Center will host a blockbuster event. Judicial Dialogues on Health and Climate Change: Emerging Standards, Comparative Trajectories, and Future Directions will convene judges, litigators, and scholars from Africa, Europe, and Latin America for a comparative examination of the evolving relationship between climate change, the right to health, and judicial enforcement.

The event will take place at Harvard law School, and will be livestreamed. Registration is open: https://petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/events/details/judicial-dialogues-health-climate-change/

08/11/2026

PFC Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen is featured this week on the CNN podcast Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. In the episode, “Your Checklist for Medical Care Abroad,” Gupta and Cohen discuss the recent uptick in Americans traveling abroad for medical care, also called medical tourism. Cohen, who has written a book on the topic, shares advice on how to vet providers, understand risks, and ask the right questions.

Listen to the podcast here: https://lnkd.in/gew-HRJt

08/05/2026

Written as part of a recent Harvard Law School faculty essay collection, America Unfinished: 250 Years of Law and Governance (The MIT Press, 2026), PFC Faculty Director I. Glenn Cohen's article on reproductive technology has been reposted on SCOTUSblog. The piece is titled “The Future of Family Planning Is Here. Is the Constitution Ready?” and is available to read here: https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/08/reproductive-technologies-and-the-federal-constitutional-vacuum/.

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