From: Hughes, James (james.hughes@trincoll.edu)
Date: Mon Jun 23 2003 - 07:55:40 MDT
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
James J. Hughes Ph.D.
Public Policy Studies, Trinity College
71 Vernon St., Hartford CT 06279
Cell Phone: 860-428-1837
Office: 860-297-2376
http://www.transhumanism.org
james.hughes@trincoll.edu
Bioethicists Debate the Coming of Post-humanity
New Haven, CT - June 27, 2003 - Boston University's George Annas and
UCLA's Greg Stock will meet in an historic debate, Friday, June 27,
8pm-10pm, in the Davies Hall (Becton Center, 15 Prospect Street) on the
Yale Campus in New Haven, to address the question "Should Humans Welcome
or Resist Becoming Posthuman?"
George Annas J.D., the chair of Health Law at Boston University, wants
an international treaty to declare cloning and inheritable genetic
enhancements to be crimes against humanity. Professor Annas' books
include The Rights of Patients and Some Choice: Law, Medicine and the
Market. Professor Annas is the co-founder of Global Lawyers and
Physicians and the Patients Rights Project.
Greg Stock Ph.D., Director of the Program on Medicine, Technology and
Society at UCLA, wants parents to have broad rights to clone, and
enhance their kids' genomes in inheritable ways. Professor Stock is
author of Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future and
Engineering The Human Germline.
Dr. Stock acknowledges that parents' use of reproductive technology
needs some oversight. But he insists that any "regulation should be
minimal, should address real rather than imagined problems, and should
be concerned with the child's safety rather than social order or the
personhood of embryos. When it comes to children, I trust the judgment
of individual parents more than that of political or judicial panels."
Professor Annas, a leading figure in American bioethics, counters that
"Uncontrolled use of the new genetic technologies risks setting us on a
dehumanizing road to genetic genocide. We need a comprehensive global
treaty that bans the most dangerous genetic technologies while allowing
beneficial medical applications to proceed."
This debate is sponsored by the World Transhumanist Association and the
Yale Interdisciplinary Bioethics Program Working Research Group on
Technology and Ethics. The debate is the opening event of the conference
TRANSVISION 2003 (TV03) "The Adaptable Human Body: Transhumanism and
Bioethics in the 21st Century," taking place at Yale's Linsly-Chittenden
Hall (62 High St.) June 28-29, 2003. The World Transhumanist
Association is a global non-profit organization devoted to defending
individuals' rights to use technology to transcend the limitations of
the human body.
For more information and directions:
http://www.transhumanism.org/tv/2003usa/
Contact: Dr. James Hughes, james.hughes@trincoll.edu, (cell)
860-297-2376, (office) 860-297-2376.
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