In planning the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's three-year mission to Mars, ethical issues are certain to be raised, such as what to do if an astronaut gets injured during the trip.
To help NASA answer those questions, Paul Wolpe, a fellow at Penn's Center for Bioethics at the School of Medicine, was recently chosen to be the Chief of Bioethics and Human Subject Protection, the first position of its kind.
As founder of NASA's in-house Bioethics Office, Wolpe will expand his role to develop policies protecting human subjects for both NASA and its foreign space partners.
"Space poses unique ethical challenges," Wolpe said. "There's no situation quite like it."
Wolpe, who completed his undergraduate work at Penn and graduate work at Yale University, researches extensively on human subject protection issues.
For his new position, Wolpe will work two days a week developing policies for NASA. While most of his work can be done at Penn, he will travel occasionally to NASA facilities and internationally to NASA's space partners.
In order to accommodate the time restraints,Wolpe will cut back on his academic committee responsibilities, while maintaining his teaching commitments at Penn.
"As Chief of Bioethics, his extensive experience will be invaluable as NASA meets its commitment to research, technology development and health care adhering to the highest bioethical principles," said Richard Williams, Acting Chief Health and Medical Officer for NASA, in a statement.
Wolpe is looking forward to his new job and confronting issues relating not only to astronauts, but also to the clinical trials that NASA runs. Such trials involve research on G-forces, zero gravity and decompression.
"The more ambitious NASA gets, the more questions will be confronted," Wolpe said.
Wolpe also explained that part of his job will be to "point out issues not thought of as bioethical issues."
And since there is not one set of policies for NASA and its space partners, his job will also involve gathering and systemizing policies, troubleshooting, advising and sitting on a medical policy board.
"Though an agreement currently exists between our space partners, it is fragmented and subjective; therefore, it needs to be formalized," Wolpe said.
The United States' foreign space partners include Russia, the European Union, Japan and Canada.
According to Wolpe, space poses unique questions that bioethicists will have to answer, as space travel grows more and more advanced.
"The justification for putting people at risk is different than testing drugs," Wolpe said, explaining that while drug testing will lead to benefits for everyone in terms of curing diseases, space travel has less universal benefits which lead to ethical challenges.
Because space travel is expanding on many fronts, NASA's need grew for an in-house bioethicist. Prior to the creation of the position, NASA relied mainly on an external advisory board.
As a result, Wolpe was selected because his location in Philadelphia is close to NASA's headquarters in Washington, D.C., and because of the research he has done in the field.
"I think that [NASA] realized that more questions and issues were raised than what [it] can handle by itself," Wolpe said.
