Media Mentions

A small sector of Silicon Valley is trying to live forever — literally — and Catholics are actively engaging with this growing ideology, reports the National Catholic Register.

Brian Patrick Green, director of technology ethics said ultimately, in his estimation, the techno-immortalist movement is an attempt to remake the world without God. Their ideology is their religion — which limits the effectiveness of dialogue.

“There’s nothing wrong with extending human life. This is literally something that Jesus tells us to do. He tells us, ‘Go forth healing all kinds of injuries.’ … There’s obviously an opportunity here. There’s a hunger out there in society. [But] we need to look at this from the outside with great skepticism,” Green told the Register.

Brian Green, director, technology ethics, quoted by the National Catholic Register.

Rep. Ro Khanna said he's going to introduce a bill that would make it illegal for elected officials to engage in stock and crypto trading.

Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, says, "You don't want there to be the sense that lawmakers are taking advantage of information that the general public is not privy to. You want it feel like it's a level playing field."

Ann Skeet, senior director, leadership ethics, quoted by NBC Bay Area.

Guadalupe Hayes-Mota warns pharmacy closures are a public health emergency in slow motion.

Hayes-Mota writes, "These closures reflect an ethical failure: choosing investor profits over the duty to keep people healthy. Addressing this crisis requires three urgent steps: supporting underserved areas with targeted incentives and mobile or telepharmacy services, investing in the workforce through safe staffing and career pathways, and granting pharmacists provider status with expanded scope of practice.

Guadalupe Hayes-Mota, director, bioethics, published in STAT News.

Critics see the renovation as problematic: "Is it fair for an administration to pursue expensive, mainly aesthetic projects while ordinary US citizens face financial strain and the government faces shutdown, where tens of thousands of federal workers are not receiving paychecks for their hard work?" asked Davina Hurt, director of the government ethics program in the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University.

Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by Deutsche Welle (DW).

Reflecting on her 2024-25 Hackworth Fellowship Project, “Queer, Religious, and Gen-Z: A Call for the Dignity of Belonging,” Santa Clara University graduate, Grace Davis ’25, shares her story for how she came into social justice work with Outreach.faith.

Davis writes:

"In a moment of growing support for LGBTQ rights from religious leaders and simultaneous life-threatening attacks in the name of religious convictions, I felt existentially out of place. Yet, I knew I was not alone. As I wrestled with questions on the ethics of dignity and belonging, I searched for stories like mine." 

Grace Davis ’25, Santa Clara University graduate, and a 2024-’25 Hackworth Fellow with the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, published by Outreach.

Despite it's promise to ensure that its AI benefits all of humanity, OpenAI announced last week lighter restrictions regarding adult or erotic content on its chatbot. The company defended its decision by stating it would enforce some age restrictions similar to rating systems for identifying age-appropriate content in movies.

KQED asks, Is this the future we want?

“Comparing content moderation of chatbot interactions with movie ratings is not really useful,” wrote Irina Raicu, director of the Internet Ethics program. “It downplays both the nature and the extent of the problems that we’re seeing when people get more and more dependent on and influenced by chatbot ‘relationships.’”

Irina Raicu, director, internet ethics, quoted by KQED.

Santa Clara County leaders are accused of improperly urging a yes vote on Measure A, through a taxpayer-funded mailer sent to all county households.

Davina Hurt, director of government ethics, said the Santa Clara County mailer “gets right up to the borderline” between ethical and unethical behavior.

“The timing and the tone truly matter,” she said. “And here, there are definitely language and words used that make you question whether this is more advocacy rather than informing.”

“Even the perception of advocacy undermines confidence in the process,” she said.

Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by KQED.

WLNS 6 News reports:

“The situation does raise some ethical questions — questions that go right to the heart of public trust,” wrote Hurt in an Oct. 7 email to 6 News Investigates.

“When we’re talking about safety, justice, and accountability, these aren’t abstract ideas; they’re the foundation of how communities relate to law enforcement. By walking through this incident using a clear ethics framework, we can start to unpack what really happened — not just what was lawful, but what was ethical."

Hurt clarifies the process by which she reviewed the circumstances saying, “Namely, the use of force and potential bias in policing was reviewed, and second, the ethics surrounding the subsequent reporting of those actions. Both dimensions are critical.”

Davina Hurt, director, government ethics, quoted by WLNS 6 News.