The Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research/Applied Research Ethics National Association in Boston focuses on the ethics of human and animal research. It organizes conferences each year that are attended by researchers, subject advocates, ethicists, policy-makers, attorneys and pharmaceutical and biotech leaders. Meredith Elkins is director of marketing and communications.

The American Society for Bioethics and Humanities in Glenview, Ill., is a professional advocacy group that brings together bioethicists from medicine, nursing, law, sociology, anthropology, government and philosophy. The society organizes a large educational conference each year and periodic smaller, topical meetings.

The National Human Genome Research Institute is headed by Dr. Eric D. Green at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., who directed the Human Genome Project. The Genome Research Institute established a program in 1990 to foster basic and applied research on the ethical, legal and social implications of genetic and genomic research for individuals, families and […]

The National Institutes of Health Department of Clinical Bioethics in Bethesda, Md., is the NIH’s bioethics research and teaching branch. Begun in 1996, the department offers fellowships and conferences and has an ethics consultation service.

The President’s Council on Bioethics is a 17-member panel appointed by President Bush in 2001 to replace the former National Bioethics Advisory Council. The new council includes physicians, lawyers, political scientists, a philosopher and a scientist. It advises the president on a range of bioethics questions.

The American Academy of Adoption Attorneys is a national association of approximately 340 attorneys who practice, or have otherwise distinguished themselves, in the field of adoption law. The Academy’s work includes promoting the reform of adoption laws and disseminating information on ethical adoption practices.

Family and Youth Law Center was founded at Capital University Law School in the fall of 1998. It works to improve child welfare and adoption law, practices and policies.

The National Council for Adoption seeks to meet the diverse needs of children, birthparents, adopted individuals, adoptive families and all those touched by adoption through global advocacy, education, research, legislative action and collaboration. Contact Chuck Johnson.

FindLaw has a section completely devoted to adoption with background information as well as laws regarding adoption across the country.