Henry T. Greely

- Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law
- Director, Center for Law and the Biosciences
- Professor, by courtesy, Genetics
- Chair, Steering Committee of the Center for Biomedical Ethics
- Director, Stanford Program in Neuroscience and Society
- Room N361, Neukom Building
Expertise
- Bioethics
- Bioscience & the Law
- Biotechnology
- Health Law & Policy
- Technology & the Law
Biography
Professor by courtesy of Genetics, Stanford School of Medicine; Director, Center for Law and the Biosciences; Director, Stanford Program in Neuroscience and Society; and Chair, Steering Committee of the Center for Biomedical Ethics.
Henry T. (Hank) Greely (BA ’74) specializes in the ethical, legal, and social implications of new biomedical technologies, particularly those related to genetics, assisted reproduction, neuroscience, or stem cell research. He is a founder and immediate past president of the International Neuroethics Society; a member of the Multi-Council Working Group of the NIH’s BRAIN Initiative, whose Neuroethics Working Group he co-chairs; chair of the Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues Committee of the Earth BioGenome Project; and chair of California’s Human Stem Cell Research Advisory Committee. He served as a member of the Committee on Science, Technology, and Law of the National Academies from 2013-2019; Neuroscience Forum of the Institute of Medicine from 2012-2019; as a member of the Advisory Council of the NIH’s National Institute for General Medical Sciences from 2013-2016; and from 2007-2010 as co-director of the Law and Neuroscience Project, funded by the MacArthur Foundation. Professor Greely chairs the steering committee for the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics and directs both the law school’s Center for Law and the Biosciences and the Stanford Program in Neuroscience and Society. Greely is also a professor (by courtesy) of genetics at Stanford School of Medicine. In 2007 Professor Greely was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, received Stanford University’s Richard W. Lyman Award in 2013, and the Stanford Prize in Population Genetics and Society in 2017. He published The End of Sex and the Future of Human Reproduction in 2016. His next book, CRISPR People: The Science and Ethics of Editing Humans, will be published in February 2021.
Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1985, Greely was a partner at Tuttle & Taylor, served as a staff assistant to the secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy, and as special assistant to the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Defense. He served as a law clerk to Justice Potter Stewart of the U.S. Supreme Court and to Judge John Minor Wisdom of the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Education
- BA Stanford University 1974
- JD Yale Law School 1977
Related Organizations
Courses
Affiliations & Honors
- Chair (1996-Present), Steering Committee, Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics (SCBE)
- Chair (2002-2003), Stanford Faculty Senate
- Chair, Working Group on Stem Cell Research Policy Implementation
- Co-chair, Stanford Program in Organizing Neuroethics Education and Research
- Director, Stanford Program on Stem Cells in Society, SCBE
- Ethics Chair, North American Committee, Human Genome Diversity Project
- Ethics Officer, World Cell Line Collection 1 (Collaboration between the Human Genome Diversity Project and the Centre de l'Etude de Polymorphism Humain
- Member, Center for Integrating Research in Genetics and Ethics, SCBE
- Member, Stanford Program on Neuroethics, SCBE
- Member, Working Group on Human Trials of Cell Based Interventions for Neurological Conditons, John Hopkins University
- Member (2002-Present), Faculty Leadership Council, Bio-X Program
- Member, Scientific Advisory Committee and Ethics Advisory Committees, Deparment of Veterans' Affairs, DNA Bank Project
- Member, Genetics Advisory Board, Deparment of Veterans' Affairs, BEST Study
- Member, Ethics Committee, American Society for Gene Therapy
- Member, Ethics Committee, International Society for Stem Cell Research
- Member, Scientific Advisory Committee, Stem Cell Network (Canada)
- Member, Ethics Advisory Board, Affymetrix, Inc.
- Member, Executive Committee, France Stanford Center for Interdisciplinary Studies
- Member, Steering Committee, Neuroscience Institute at Stanford
- Member, Advisory Committee, Stanford Institute for Clinical Information
- Member, Advisory Committee, Stanford Comprehensive Cancer Center
- Member, Executive Committee, Stanford Program in Regenerative Medicine
- Member, Operations Subcommittee
- Member, Bioethics Subcommittee
- Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science
- Stanford University’s Richard W. Lyman Award, 2013
- Stanford Prize in Population Genetics and Society, 2017
Faculty on Point | Prof. Hank Greely on Emerging Human Reproduction Technologies
De-extinction: Hubris or Hope?: Hank Greely at TEDxDeExtinction
Stanford Legal on SiriusXM: Evidence, Law, and Technology with Hank Greely and Robert Weisberg
Part 1
Part 2
Key Works
News
Intellectual property and assisted reproductive technology
Nature Biotechnology
Stanford bioethicist Henry Greely predicts that a large proportion of human pregnancies — perhaps even 90% in the United States — will one day result from in vitro gametogenesis (IVG), the production of eggs and sperm from undifferentiated human cells. Greely suspects that eventually most prospective parents — even those…
Read MoreHas DNA Testing Prevented Disease?
Bloomberg
Human Brain Cells Grow in Rats, and Feel What the Rats Feel
The New York Times
What happens when human brain tissue is implanted into rats
Economist
Human neurons transplanted into rats to help study brain disorders
The Guardian
Stanford scientists grow human brain cells in rats — and get them to do things
The Mercury News
50 years of ethics: Scientists navigate an increasingly challenging field
Stanford Medicine News
Join the Conversation
/2 He argues the man might as well fight his alcoholism in Scotland. "Change Glenlivet for Bourbon and it is still whiskey, only not so good." The Amateur Emigrant, 1895, The Essential Travel Writings, Robert Louis Stevenson. ($2.51 on Kindle-tempting)
...https://books.google.com/books?id=Tlw7DwAAQBAJ&pg=PA161&lpg=PA161&dq=%22You+cannot+run+away+from+weakness;+you+must+some+time+fight+it+out+or+perish;+and+if+that+be+so,+why+not+now,+and+where+you+stand?&source=bl&ots=EF1Cd30xD0&sig=ACfU3U3JrBEJoXB0_6FvFGnDoaJ-47IKsg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFu4ilxPz8AhVXATQIHTlzBXk4KBDoAXoECAIQAw#v=onepage&q=%22You%20cannot%20run%20away%20from%20weakness%3B%20you%20must%20some%20time%20fight%20it%20out%20or%20perish%3B%20and%20if%20that%20be%20so%2C%20why%20not%20now%2C%20and%20where%20you%20stand%3F&f=false
NOTE - this is live only, no Zoom option. So if you aren't going to be in the Stanford area next Tuesday, I fear you should ignore this invitation.
Please join us for a talk with Professor Ellen Wright Clayton (Vanderbilt University Law School) on "Future Legal Problems in Genomics: Liability and Privacy."
Time: Tuesday, February 7, 2023, 4:30 – 6:15 pm (PST).
Location: Room 285, Stanford Law School.
Lake Lag report-I think it's beginning to recede. Not much, but yesteray that fence post looked a bit more out of the water...& there's a rim of wet dirt around some of the Lake. No non-microscopic surf or tides; I think that can only be formerly submerged land coming out. A tad.