Bioethics
Bioethics examines the ethical and philosophical issues surrounding biological and medical research, technologies, and treatments. These issues include informed consent, patient safety, conflicts of interest, and the broader social and political consequences of biotechnologies. Some critics have suggested that bioethicists are too focused on doctor-patient and researcher-subject relationships to the exclusion of broader social concerns, or that they are too willing to provide justifications for questionable scientific work. Others have accused bioethicists of placing unnecessary obstacles in the way of scientific investigations.
Everyone knows, or thinks they know, that complex and fast-moving new biotechnologies inevitably outstrip legal regulation and ethical scrutiny. Surrogacy—the...
Bill McKibben and john a. powell came discuss the “Climate Crisis, Designer Babies, and Our Common Future.” The event was moderated by Osagie K. Obasogie, Professor of Bioethics at UC Berkeley.
While embryo selection and gene editing technologies may offer great hope to couples looking to prevent hereditary disease or improve fertility. The debate over these technologies has reignited concerns that we are closer to slipping down the slope to designer babies than ever before. Are these fears warranted…or overblown?
Catherine Kudlick (Longmore Institute, SFSU) offers opening remarks about the film Gattaca, followed by a panel discussion with Kudlick, Marcy Darnovsky (CGS), Sara Acevedo (California Institute of Integral Studies), Lawrence Carter-Long (Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund), Dominika Bednarska (Performer/Activist), and moderator Karen Nakamura (UC Berkeley).
The event, co-sponsored by Center for Genetics and Society, Superfest International Disability Film Festival, San Francisco Public Library, and UC Berkeley's Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society, was held at San Francisco Main Public Library on March 8, 2018.