Spring 2011 Biology and Society Lecture Series: Exploring the Future of Bioethics
In the last several decades, difficult values questions have emerged around a wide range of projects in the biosciences. These questions—and the various philosophical and institutional responses to them—have been grouped together under the heading of “bioethics.” The development of bioethics has expanded possibilities for certain forms of deliberation and governance while limiting others. With these developments, new problems have emerged, particularly around the relationship between bioethics and politics, and the procedures for articulating the norms and conceptions of the good that will shape biotechnological innovation and public policy.
This series draws together distinguished scholars from several disciplinary perspectives to reflect upon the role of bioethics in contemporary democratic societies. Speakers will explore bioethics as a domain of philosophical inquiry, as a form of professionalized expertise, as a culturally embedded set of practices and discourses, and as a nationally situated resource of governance. The series will examine what is at stake—morally, socially, politically and scientifically—in developing approaches to normative dimensions of the biomedical and life sciences.
Future Lectures:
A Communitarian View of Bioethics
Amitai Etzioni
University Professor
George Washington University
April 21, 5:00pm, GIOS 101
Past Lectures
Living Constitutions: The Interplay of Genetics, Ethics and Citizenship
Sheila Jasanoff
Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies,
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
February 10th
5:00-6:30 p.m.
GIOS 101, Arizona State University
The Public Role of Bioethics: A View from the Law
Henry T. Greely
Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law
Stanford Law School
March 10, 5:00pm, GIOS 101
The History and Future of Bioethics: A Sociological View
John H. Evans
Professor of Sociology
University of California, San Diego
March 31, 5:00pm, GIOS 101