Stella Mosetti | Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna

Bio

Stella is a PhD candidate in Health Science, Technology, and Management, specializing in Bioethics. She is currently a recognized visiting doctoral researcher at the Uehiro Oxford Institute, University of Oxford.

She holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Philosophy from Vita-Salute San Raffaele University in Milan, where she developed a specialization in bioethics and moral philosophy, alongside a double degree in Anthropology and Philosophy of the Person from the Institut Catholique de Toulouse.

Her research focuses on the ethical implications of emerging biomedical technologies.

In early 2025, she was a visiting researcher at the Center for Social Ethics at the University of Bonn, where she investigated the ethical challenges posed by digital brain twins.

Stella has presented her work at several international conferences and published in peer-reviewed journals on topics related to bioethics, moral philosophy, and emerging health technologies.

Ricerca

Stella's research interests lie at the intersection of Bioethics, Moral Philosophy, and the Philosophy of Biology, with a focus on how medical innovation is fundamentally reshaping the landscape of end-of-life care. Her work investigates the shifting conceptual boundaries of human life, specifically how advanced medical technologies, such as artificial and bionic organs, challenge our traditional understanding of the human organism.

Currently, her research is primarily focused on the clinical and ethical implications of ventricular assist devices (VADs). This includes examining their impact on proxy decision-making and the application of the "best interests" standard, with a specific emphasis on pediatric bioethics. Within this field, Stella addresses communication gaps in clinical settings, exploring the ethical weight of involving the child in processes such as the compassionate deactivation of devices.

This clinical inquiry was supported by a broader analysis of the evolution of death concepts and predictive ethics. Stella explored how the transition from purely biological definitions of death to more nuanced ethical frameworks is influenced by technological surrogacy. Her work also investigated how predictive ethics and digital twins can fill epistemological and moral gaps in the brain death debate.

Pubblicazioni

Mosetti, S. (2026). Ethical frontiers of pediatric compassionate deactivation: exploring an emerging bioethical phenomenon. Medicina e Morale (accepted for publication)
Mosetti, S. (2026) Telling is Caring: Prioritizing the Best Interests of Dying Children. HEC Forum. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10730-026-09584-x
Comerci, G., Mosetti, S., Barnhart, A. J., & Braun, M. (2026). Can digital brain twins dissolve the uncertainties surrounding unresponsive wakefulness?. BMC medical ethics, 27(1), 37. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12910-026-01390-x

Corsi

University of Roma 3, Rome, Italy — Congress of the Italian Society for Moral Philosophy (SIFM) — May 30, 2026
The truth and the child. Ethics and emotions in end-of-life pediatric care

Uehiro Oxford Institute, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK — Graduate Discussion Group — May 22, 2026
When withdrawal seems unlike withholding: moral equivalence in pediatric compassionate deactivation

Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy — Climate and Technological Sustainability Interdisciplinary Research Paths Conference — May 11, 2026
Ventricular assist devices at the crossroads: life extension vs long-term sustainability

Oxford, UK — PGBC Conference 2025 — September 5, 2025
When words matter: communication gaps in pediatric compassionate deactivation

European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care (ESPMH), Manchester, UK — 37th Conference — August 2025 (selected, unable to attend)
To tell or not to tell the child: the case of VAD deactivation

Munich, Germany — Neuroethics 2025 — April 2025 (poster session)
To predict or not to predict? Using digital brain twins to fill epistemological and moral gaps in vegetative state care

TUM Institute of History and Ethics of Medicine, Munich, Germany — Invited seminar — November 21, 2024
The organism as a whole and the ethics of technological surrogates

Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa, Italy — Poster session — October 25, 2024
Understanding life: a bioethical examination of the organism as a whole in the brain death debate

Cambridge, UK — PGBC Conference 2024 — September 3, 2024
The complexity of brain death: balancing biological and moral perspectives

BioRob 2024, Heidelberg, Germany — Workshop speaker and organizer — September 1, 2024
For a philosophy of artificial organs: from a “biology of technology” to bioethics

Rome, Italy — XXV World Congress of Philosophy — August 1–8, 2024
The moral implications of the organism as a whole in the brain death debate: bioethical challenges in the face of medical technology

European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care (ESPMH), Riga, Latvia — August 26, 2023
Life on the edge: is it still possible to rely on the criterion of brain death?

Institut Catholique de Toulouse, Toulouse, France — May 13, 2022
Between therapy and enhancement: ethical perspectives on mandatory vaccination in the SARS-CoV-2 scenario

Teaching Activities

University of Pisa — MEET: Frontiers in Medical Technological Ethics — April 13–15, 2026
Ethics of ventricular assist devices in pediatrics: compassionate deactivation

University of Pisa — MEET: Frontiers in Medical Technological Ethics — April 23, 2023
Brain death and bioethics: clinical cases and emerging technological frontiers

Public Engagement / Third Mission

Bright Night, Pisa, Italy — July 27, 2024
Intertwining medical knowledge: why philosophy today?

Castello di Pandino, Italy — April 28, 2024
What can a violinist do? Bioethics between thought experiments and moral dilemmas