Psychedelic Medicine and Research Through a Bioethics Lens

Psychedelic medicine is at a pivotal moment. With increased interest from the public, practitioners, and policymakers—including a recent executive order to speed up review of certain psychedelic drugs—ethics questions about how these therapies are regulated, studied, and administered have taken on new urgency.

On July 23, 2026, The Greenwall Foundation hosted a webinar, A Bioethics Conversation: What’s Next for Psychedelics?, to raise and explore these issues. The event brought together three panelists with legal, research, and ethics expertise to discuss pressing bioethics questions raised by the rapidly evolving psychedelics landscape.

I. Glenn Cohen, JD, of Harvard Law School, opened the webinar with framing comments about what we mean when we talk about ‘psychedelics,’ including the substances the term captures and the contexts in which they are used and regulated. Prof. Cohen focused his remarks on one of those contexts—therapeutic use—discussing FDA review and potential approval. He pointed to important ethics questions raised by President Trump’s psychedelics executive order, including whether FDA’s increased focus on psychedelics might take away time spent reviewing other drugs as well as the quality of expedited reviews—done in one to two months compared to the FDA’s typical six- to 10-month timeline—for drugs eligible for the FDA Commissioner’s National Priority Vouchers.

David B. Yaden, PhD, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, echoed Prof. Cohen’s opening remarks, explaining that “the term ‘psychedelic’ almost does more harm than good.” He noted that the topic of psychedelics attracts extreme statements, both positive and negative. He stressed that current evidence falls somewhere between those poles, with psychedelics like psilocybin showing benefits that are “broadly in line with existing evidence-based treatments” but “with a quite different side effect profile.” Prof. Yaden also detailed the robust safeguards and care with which clinical trials of psychedelic therapies are conducted. He expressed concerns that, were psilocybin to be approved by the FDA, aspects of this therapeutic model might fall away given their expense, resulting in a tradeoff between access and safety.

Amy McGuire, JD, PhD, of Baylor College of Medicine, posed a host of ethics questions, including several raised by the clinical delivery of psychedelics: What do the effects of psychedelics mean for obtaining informed consent prior to treatment? Do providers need to have had personal experience with psychedelics to competently treat their patients? What protections are needed to ensure patients’ safety during dosing sessions? Prof. McGuire also addressed psychedelic use outside of healthcare settings, including at psychedelic retreats and by indigenous communities with long histories with some of these substances.

During the moderated Q&A, the panelists further discussed what is owed to indigenous communities as some of these substances receive FDA approval and are commercialized, the sometimes-surprising bipartisan support for advancing psychedelic policies, and how and when ethics should be incorporated into this complex arena.

For more details and to hear directly from the panelists, watch the full video above or on YouTube. And subscribe to our newsletter at the bottom of this page to be sure you don’t miss the next Greenwall Foundation event.