iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

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Pieter T. L. Beck @ptrbck.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Excuses bij voorbaat, maar ik moet even mijn frustraties ventileren over de manier waarop het publieke debat rond de Cofnas-kwestie gevoerd (en vooral: geframed) wordt. En de rol van de media daarin.

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Heidi Mertes @heidimertes.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Given the on-going pressure on Ghent University to trample on its own core values to accomodate stigmatising pseudoscience, voicing support for the statement below is all the more important. Not despite, but because of, the importance of academic freedom and the responsabilities that come with it.

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Gillian Mathys @gillianmathys.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

We started an open letter countering some of the incorrect framing about the suspension of Nathan Cofnas. It is a long letter, but we think it is needed to explain the issues. Please sign in support: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...

docs.google.com

Open letter on the suspension of Nathan Cofnas at Ghent University

We, colleagues of Nathan Cofnas - supported by many colleagues internationally - want to respond to the negative and incorrect framing of Ghent University’s decision to suspend Nathan Cofnas. With th...

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Mohammad Hosseini @mhmdhsini.bsky.social · 03/02/2026

Iranians are experiencing a collective trauma. Thousands have been killed/injured in recent events, the economy is crippled & the threat of a wider conflict is real. This is especially difficult for those living in Iran, as many have lost (or fear losing) loved ones. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

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Heidi Mertes @heidimertes.bsky.social · 22/12/2025

💥 On April 9th 2026, we will be hosting the closing event of our @erc.europa.eu funded project #DIME on disruptive innovation in healthcare and medical ethics in Ghent. 📣 Call for Abstracts is now open! See: www.dime.ugent.be/sample-page/...

dime.ugent.be

DIME – dime-project ugent

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Heidi Mertes @heidimertes.bsky.social · 10/12/2025

🙏 Thank you @pet-bionews.bsky.social and Cathy Herbrand from the #precas project for inviting me to speak at the #petconf25 in London on the ethical considerations involved in (expanded) preconception carrier screening. Main take-away: if we want to do this well, we will need lots of counseling!

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Claudia Wiesemann @cwiesemann.bsky.social · 12/03/2025

Can't tell how greatful I am for these last bits of sanity in America: A Great Unraveling Is Underway www.nytimes.com/2025/03/11/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | A Great Unraveling Is Underway (Gift Article)

Trump’s foreign policy philosophy is not “containment” or “engagement,” but “smash and grab.”

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Heidi Mertes @heidimertes.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

📢 Metamedica UGent is hosting a free symposium on the topic of epistemic injustice in medical AI. 📆 11 March 2025, 16:00-18:00 CET 🏛 Library Labs, Rozier 44, 9000 Gent or 💻 online Join us! ✏ details and registration: humanitiesacademie.ugent.be/epistemic-in...

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Magdalena Skipper @magdalenaskipper.bsky.social · 25/02/2025

Inexplicably, US administration has launched an unprecedented assault on science, on research institutions & on vital international organizations & initiatives. An assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere; the global community must unite 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

nature.com

Trump 2.0: an assault on science anywhere is an assault on science everywhere

US President Donald Trump is taking a wrecking ball to science and to international institutions. The global research community must take a stand against these attacks.

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Elizabeth Jacobs, PhD @elizabethjacobs.bsky.social · 17/02/2025

A website has been started in response to the orders to take down references to women’s accomplishments in government offices. We are not going to let them erase us this time. womenrefusingtobeerased.org

womenrefusingtobeerased.org

Women Refusing to Be Erased

Join us to inspire, educate, and uplift women/womxn.

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Martin McKee @martinmckee.bsky.social · 12/02/2025

🧵 Trump’s USAID funding freeze abruptly halted critical global health research, abandoning participants mid-trial. A gross ethical violation. @bachynski.bsky.social & I explain what happened and why it matters @bmj.com . ⬇️ www.bmj.com/content/388/...

bmj.com

Abandoning research participants is an unconscionable betrayal

In 1964, the Declaration of Helsinki created a set of universal ethical principles to protect human participants in health research.1 Described as “the cornerstone of research ethics,”2 these principl...

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WHO @who.int · 11/02/2025

Today is International Day of Women & Girls in Science. Marie Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Her contributions have left an indelible mark on the world of science & health & continue to inspire generations of scientists & innovators. 🔬 #WomenInScience #WomenInSTEM

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Marie Curie, Physicist and chemist.

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Keelin O’Donoghue @keelinodonoghue.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

“health, medical, &scientific communities have a vital role in advocating for their patients, defending programmes, & lobbying for policies &institutions that are good for health &wellbeing” American chaos: standing up for health & medicine @thelancet.bsky.social www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

thelancet.com

American chaos: standing up for health and medicine

Withdrawal from WHO and the Paris Agreements. USAID shuttered and aid halted, ceasing health programmes globally. A freeze on US$3 trillion worth of federal grants and loans, jeopardising the function...

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Heidi Mertes @heidimertes.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

And here's me thinking that the Declaration of Helsinki is more than a scrap of paper. It will take decades to rebuild the trust of vulnerable populations in US researchers.

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Atul Gawande @agawande.bsky.social · 07/02/2025

“We are witnessing one of the worst and most costly foreign policy blunders in U.S. history.” www.nytimes.com/2025/02/06/o...

nytimes.com

Opinion | Samantha Power: Killing U.S.A.I.D. Is a Win for Autocrats Everywhere (Gift Article)

The attacks on the agency are cruel and counterproductive.

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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 31/01/2025

If you are in danger unless you comply with a regime, you are in danger whether you comply or not

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Anna Alexandrova @annaalexandrova.bsky.social · 05/02/2025

A rare and wonderful sight of a great UK philosophy job. Please spread widely to colleagues worldwide. Area of Specialization: Ethics and/or Political Philosophy Would be an advantage to be able to teach Ethics of AI Tenure-track Application deadline: 10th March 2025 #philsky

cis7.bbk.ac.uk

Lecturer in Philosophy (2078) - Birkbeck, University of London

Birkbeck

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WHO @who.int · 27/12/2024

This morning’s raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital has put this last major health facility in North #Gaza out of service. Initial reports indicate that some key departments were severely burnt and destroyed during the raid.

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Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics @bermaninstitute.bsky.social · 06/05/2024

America’s IVF Failure: One out of every 50 babies born in the U.S. was conceived via IVF. Why is the industry so poorly regulated? | The Atlantic www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

theatlantic.com

America’s IVF Failure

One out of every 50 babies born in the U.S. was conceived via IVF. Why is the industry so poorly regulated?

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Iris van Rooij 💭 @irisvanrooij.bsky.social · 11/04/2024

📢 Vacancy for Lecturer with background in critical (e.g. feminist, queer, postcolonial) theory & methods, interested in teaching AI students critical perspectives on AI. We encourage candidates from historically underrepresented backgrounds to apply 🌈 www.ru.nl/en/working-a...

ru.nl

Lecturer in Critical Intersectional Perspectives on AI | Radboud University

Working as a lecturer at the Faculty of Social Sciences? Check our vacancy here!

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Heidi Mertes @heidimertes.bsky.social · 08/03/2024

Marcia Inhorn: "In this book, I aim to answer Heidi Mertes's important question." Very flattered (for receiving too much credit) and happy that judgemental stereotyping of women freezing eggs is on its way out! #eggfreezing #internationalwomensday

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Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics @bermaninstitute.bsky.social · 20/02/2024

Alabama Supreme Court ruling could end IVF treatments in state: The state’s high court ruled Friday that frozen embryos outside the womb are children. 19thnews.org/2024/02/ivf-...

19thnews.org

Alabama Supreme Court ruling could end IVF treatments in state

The state’s high court ruled Friday that frozen embryos outside the womb are children.

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Robin Marty @robinmarty.com · 20/02/2024

Reminder: "embryo" refers to any point in development from fertilization to 8 weeks development. But those used in IVF are pre-implantation, meaning they are only a few DAYS old. Every news story should be obligated to show what development we are REALLY talking about.

grayscale photo of round blastocyst at 5 days which looks like a weirdly scaled discoball and not a teeny weeny bitty baby. Picture reads "THIS is what the Alabama Supreme Court is calling 'an extrauterine child' and 'minor'" Also should be noted this picture is massively blown up because we are talking head of a pin size right now.

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Heidi Mertes @heidimertes.bsky.social · 09/01/2024

Very exited to be hosting a Brocher workshop this week on "Shifting responsibilities in healthcare due to disruptive innovation: ethical, legal, and social implications", as part of our ERC-funded DIME project. Updated programme through the link on our project website: www.dime.ugent.be/news/

dime.ugent.be

News – DIME

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G. Owen Schaefer @owenschaefer.bsky.social · 16/11/2023

Bioethicists on the market? Do consider applying for a post-doc here at NUS CBmE, we've just opened a new call for a job working on AI Ethics. We've got a great and growing team, feel free to send me any related queries: careers.nus.edu.sg/NUS/job/YONG...

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Heidi Mertes @heidimertes.bsky.social · 28/10/2023

As I'm new on this platform, perhaps I should introduce myself. I'm a Belgian bioethicist with a track record in the field of reproductive medicine, reproductive genetics, embryo research, fertility awareness, parenthood. Currently PI of ERC StG on disruptive innovation in healthcare: dime.ugent.be

dime.ugent.be

DIME – dime-project ugent

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