Transvision
2003 Panel
Saturday, June 28, 2003
10:15-11:45pm
Linsly-Chittenden Hall, 62
High St., New Haven CT
Animals, Clones and Transhumans
Dorothy
Wertz Ph.D.
American Society for Law, Medicine & Ethics
"Twenty-one Arguments Against Human Cloning, and Their
Responses"
Using a consequentialist (utilitarian) approach, this
paper examines each of 21 arguments commonly given against human
reproductive cloning, including effects on the individual, family,
society, sexual reproduction, and the moral order. It concludes that the
only valid argument against cloning is safety.
Dorothy C. Wertz is Research Professor of Psychiatry ,
University of Massachusetts Medical School, Shriver Division, in
Waltham, MA., and Senior Scientist at the American Society of Law,
Medicine and Ethics in Boston, MA. She has authored over 150 articles
and book chapters on ethics, genetics, and reproduction. She received
her Ph.D. from Harvard in the Study of Religion, and taught sociology
and anthropology for 18 years. Her books include Genetics and Ethics in
Global Perspective (forthcoming), Lying In: A History of Childbirth in
America, 1989, and Ethics and Human Genetics: A Cross-Cultural
Perspective (1989). She is an expert advisor to WHO, a member of the
Human Genome Organization (HUGO) Ethics Committee, Chair of the New
England Regional Genetics Group Ethics Committee, founder of Geneletter,
an online educational resource, and a contributor to Genedit at the
University of Montreal's HumGen website. She has received a 3-year grant
from NIH to study "DNA Fingerprinting and Civil Liberties".
Craig DeLancey Ph.D.
Dept. of Philosophy SUNY Oswego
"Systematic Biocentric Axiology: Environmental Ethics as a
Foundation for Transhuman Ethics"
Many ethical traditions assume that humans have moral
value because they are human. The possibility of transhumans challenged
this approach, since such individuals could lack features that
traditional humans share, and could thus be deemed not deserving.
Craig DeLancey is assistant professor of philosophy at
the State University of New York at Oswego. He holds a joint Ph.D. in
cognitive science and philosophy, and an M.S. in computer science. He
works on issues in the theory of mind and environmental ethics, and his
publications include _Passionate Engines: What Emotions Reveal about
Mind and Artificial Intelligence_ (Oxford University Press, 2002). He
has also worked as a business consultant for issues of finance and
sustainable development.
Jason Scott Robert Ph.D.
and Francoise Baylis Ph.D.
Dept. of Philosophy Dalhousie University
"Confusion about crossing species boundaries: Scientific,
ethical, and social aspects of chimaera making in stem cell
biology"
The creation of novel beings from the genetic and
cellular material of humans and creatures of other species tends to
inspire moral unrest. But why should it? We survey the scientific
justification for the creation of one sort of novel being (the
human-to-animal chimaera), and critically assess ethical objections to
such research.
Dr Jason Scott Robert is Assistant Professor of
Philosophy at Dalhousie University, and holds a New Investigator Award
from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Robert is a philosopher
of biology with interests in bioethics. His first book, Embryology,
Epigenesis, and Evolution: Taking Development Seriously, is forthcoming
from Cambridge University Press.
Dr Francoise Baylis is Professor in the Departments of
Bioethics and Philosophy at Dalhousie University. Her current research
involves social and ethical aspects of novel biotechnologies, and she
has published widely in this area. Robert and Baylis have co-authored
three forthcoming articles (on genetic enhancement, the creation of
chimaeras, and germ-line genetic engineering), are both investigators in
the Stem Cell Network (a member of the Networks of Centres of Excellence
program), and are co-founders of the Novel Genetic Technologies Research
Team at Dalhousie.
