R. Alta Charo, JD

Charo recounts her immigrant family’s experiences in Brooklyn’s Flatbush neighborhood and her public-school education before leaving for Harvard University and then Columbia Law School. Charo discusses her early career in environmental law, her work at the Legislative Drafting Research Fund and at the Office of Technology Assessment. She shares the story of her appointment at the University of Wisconsin Law School and her expanding experience as a bioethics-focused policy expert. She discusses her work in the 1990s on President Clinton’s National Bioethics Advisory Commission when the sheep “Dolly” was cloned, and a few years later as a member of the NIH Human Embryo Research Panel, when publicity and politics highlighted the challenges of bioethics in the public sphere. Charo describes “bio-optimists” and “bio-pessimists” as a way to think about divisions among bioethicists and emphasizes the importance she places on balancing optimism and caution in technological advancements, citing Star Trek as an important influence. She discusses the role of law and regulation in guiding technology’s use, the importance of public education about genetics, the complexities of end-of-life decisions, and the need for personalized medical care. The conversation concludes with reflections on her committee work related to IVF, genome editing, and the national security implications of biotech.