Ethics at the Frontiers of Science - 2007

Ethical issues raised by cutting-edge developments in science, especially in the areas of stem cell research and therapy, neurosciences, and computing technology and robotics. Topics include memory enhancement and erasure, brain and self and freedom and responsibility, the distinction between therapy and enhancement, life span extension, from smart drugs to smart brains, the promises and perils of stem cell research, egg and embryo donation, designer babies, robotic ethics, cyborgs, search engine ethics, the Web and the ownership and distribution of knowledge. -- View the current course page.

Date:   March 12, 2007

• Speaker: Dr. Floyd E. Bloom
  
  
  • Member, President's Council on Bioethics
  • Chairman of the Department of Neuropharmacology
  • Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla

• Neuroscience and Ethics
• Neuroscience and Ethics Q&A

Dr. Floyd E. Bloom is a past chairman of AAAS, former editor-in-chief of the journal Science and chairman of the Department of Neuropharmacology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. He is also a member of the President's Council on Bioethics (http://bioethics.gov). A member of the National Academy of Sciences since 1977, he is the recipient of numerous prizes for his contributions to science, including the Janssen Award in the Basic Sciences and the Pasarow Award in Neuropsychiatry. He has also been named a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and a member of the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Bloom's more than 600 publications include the seminal work, The Biochemical Basis of Neuropharmacology and The Dana Guide to Brain Health. In an important call-to-arms for healing the U.S. health care system, published 13 June in Science and based on his Presidential Lecture at the 2003 AAAS Annual Meeting, he describes how events of the 20th century have produced a system that cannot incorporate or implement new knowledge for the diagnosis or treatment of disease. Bloom earned his B.A. from Southern Methodist University and his M.D. from the Washington University School of Medicine.

Date:   April 23, 2007

• Speaker: Pam Dixon
  
  
  • Executive Director, World Privacy Forum.

• Ethics & Privacy

The incredibly rapid growth of computer power has made information storage and retrieval much easier. In this class meeting, we will examine several computer-related challenges to privacy in the internet age.

Date:   Feburary 12, 2007

• Speaker: Michael Kalichman
  
  
  • Director, Center for Ethics in Science and Technology
    University of California San Diego

• Stem Cell Regulation: Alternative Sources of Human Embryonic Stem Cells (hESC)

A presentation on Stem Cell regulation and the alternative sources of Human Embryonic Stem Cells

Date:   Feburary 19, 2007

• Speaker: Evan Snyder
  
  
  • Program Director, Professor
    Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine
    Burnham Institute

• Stem Cell Research: Promises and Perils

A presentation on the "Promise and Perils" of stem cell research