June 7, 2010

NYU Conference on Valuing Lives
By S. Matthew Liao

The NYU Center for Bioethics, in conjunction with the NYU Environmental Studies Program, will be hosting ‘Valuing Lives: A Conference on Ethics in Health and the Environment’ on Saturday, March 5, 2011.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Various policy issues in environmental and health-related matters force policymakers to trade human lives against other values. Original, unpublished papers from philosophers, economists and legal scholars that address whether and how this can be done in a morally acceptable manner are welcomed. Possible topics include, but are not limited to: commensurability of human life and environmental values; compensation for harms to health; polling, public deliberation, and the appeal to expertise in evaluative matters; prioritizing the life and health of the young and the poorly-off; discounting future lives; saving identifiable lives vs. saving statistical lives; the precautionary principle; the human dignity objection to measuring the value of human life.

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Posted on June 7, 2010 at 4:26 am in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Conference Announcement, Practical Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

April 13, 2010

Podcast: McMahan on Gene Therapy, Cognitive Disability, and Abortion
By S. Matthew Liao

Professor Jeff McMahan at Rutgers University recently gave a talk at the NYU Center for Bioethics and the Department of Philosophy on “Gene Therapy, Cognitive Disability, and Abortion.”

With his permission, a podcast of his talk can be found here:

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An abstract of his talk is as follows:

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Posted on April 13, 2010 at 4:26 am in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Practical Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

February 22, 2010

Open House for NYU’s Master’s Program in Bioethics
By S. Matthew Liao

Readers may know that I’ve recently taken up an associate professorship in the Center for Bioethics with an affiliation in the philosophy department at NYU. The Center runs a Master’s Program in Bioethics and is holding an open house on

Thursday, March 4, 2010
5:30-7:30 PM
285 Mercer Street, 9th Floor
(Between Waverly and Washington Pl.)
New York, NY 10003

If you are interested in pursuing graduate studies in Bioethics, this will be a good opportunity to meet with the faculty and students and discuss the range of Program options and career benefits. Food and refreshments will be served.

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Posted on February 22, 2010 at 8:55 pm in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, General Announcement, Practical Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

February 19, 2010

Workshop on The Future of Consent
By S. Matthew Liao

AHRC workshop on “The Future of Consent”
Date: March 22nd-24th 2010
Location: Chancellor’s Conference Centre, Manchester

There are a limited number of places available for a two day interdisciplinary and international workshop—The Future of Consent—organised by Neil Manson and Dave Archard (Lancaster) and funded by the AHRC with additional support from the Society for Applied Philosophy.

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Posted on February 19, 2010 at 7:38 am in Bioethics, Conference Announcement, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

November 14, 2009

Continuum Ethics book series
By Thom Brooks

Continuum Ethics
A series of books exploring key topics in contemporary ethics and moral philosophy.

Continuum Ethics presents a series of books that will bridge the gap between new research work and undergraduate textbooks. They will provide close examination of key concepts in contemporary moral philosophy. Aimed largely at upper-level undergraduates and research students, they will also appeal to researchers in the field. Authors will be expected to combine philosophical sophistication with an accessible style that can engage the educated reader.

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Posted on November 14, 2009 at 2:06 pm in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Experimental Ethics, Free Will, General Announcement, Legal Philosophy, Metaethics, Moral Epistemology, Moral Psychology, Normative Ethics, Philosophy of Action, Political Philosophy, Practical Ethics, Simon Kirchin's Posts, Thom Brooks's Posts | Leave a Comment

August 28, 2009

Conference on the Work of Onora O’Neill
By S. Matthew Liao

The British Academy, in association with the Centre de recherche en éthique de l’Université de Montréal, will be hosting an international conference on the work of Onora O’Neill, entitled “Ethics and Politics Beyond Borders: The Work of Onora O’Neill.

24-26 SEPTEMBER 2009
10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1
Convenor: Professor David Archard (Lancaster University)

Thursday, 24 September 2009
12.00 Registration

1.30 Session 1: The ethics and politics of global justice
Welcome and opening remarks

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Posted on August 28, 2009 at 2:14 pm in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Conference Announcement, Normative Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

January 8, 2009

2nd Annual Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress
By Alastair Norcross

The 2nd annual Rocky Mountain Ethics Congress (RoME) will be held in Boulder, Colorado August 6-9 2009. Note that this is a congress, not just a conference. That means it’s more important. There may even be a sexual connotation to “congress” for those whose minds work like that. Who am I to judge?

Some have called the first RoME Congress (August 2008) “the best damn ethics conference or congress ever. Perhaps even the best damn philosophy conference or congress ever”. I am supremely confident that the 2nd RoME Congress will be even better.

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Posted on January 8, 2009 at 12:18 am in Alastair Norcross's Posts, Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Conference Announcement, Metaethics, Normative Ethics, Political Philosophy | 1 Comment

November 14, 2008

Reductio Ad Hermaphroditum
By Dominic Wilkinson

At the James Martin Seminar in Oxford this week, Melbourne philosopher Rob Sparrow presented an argument against enhancement and procreative beneficence. His work had raised some interest in the popular media when he presented it a few months ago, and I posted a short potential response to his argument at Practical Ethics News.

In this post, and (if I can find time) subsequent posts I would like to explore the implications and possible responses to Rob’s intriguing reductio argument. First, an outline of the argument. Rob’s presentation was based upon a series of cases. I will reproduce them as faithfully as I can (from memory).

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Posted on November 14, 2008 at 10:05 pm in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Dominic Wilkinson's Posts, Practical Ethics | 2 Comments

August 8, 2008

CONF: Cognitive Disability: A Challenge to Moral Philosophy
By S. Matthew Liao

The Stony Brook University Department of Philosophy is hosting a conference on “Cognitive Disability: A Challenge to Moral Philosophy.” The conference features a fantastic group of speakers and panelists. Those who are interested in this topic should definitely consider attending.

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Posted on August 8, 2008 at 2:39 am in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Conference Announcement, Practical Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | 1 Comment

July 31, 2008

A Special Issue on the Ethics of Enhancement
By S. Matthew Liao

A Special Issue on the Ethics of Enhancement guest-edited by me and two other Contributors of Ethics Etc, Julian Savulescu and David Wasserman, has just come out with the Journal of Applied Philosophy. Here are the links to the papers if you have institutional access:

The Ethics of Enhancement: Guest Editors’ Introduction
S. MATTHEW LIAO, JULIAN SAVULESCU, DAVID WASSERMAN

The Perils of Cognitive Enhancement and the Urgent Imperative to Enhance the Moral Character of Humanity
INGMAR PERSSON, JULIAN SAVULESCU

Issues in the Pharmacological Induction of Emotions
DAVID WASSERMAN, S. MATTHEW LIAO

Read the full post here

Posted on July 31, 2008 at 6:49 pm in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, General Announcement, Practical Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | Leave a Comment

May 22, 2008

Why not hybrid embryos?
By Thom Brooks

Recently, British MP’s voted to allow the creation of hybrid embryos for medical research. These embryos would be 99.9% “human” but 0.1% “cow” or “rabbit” — the animal element is simply the use of animal eggs, from which animal DNA is extracted, human DNA implanted, the “hybrid” embryo is then given an electric shock, and then stem cells harvested for use in research. All matter must be destroyed within 14 days. (Q&A on hybrid embryos can be found here.)

This move has been highly controversial for several reasons. Some of these reasons include the following:

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Posted on May 22, 2008 at 1:24 pm in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Political Philosophy, Practical Ethics, Thom Brooks's Posts | 2 Comments

February 18, 2008

New Blog: Practical Ethics
By S. Matthew Liao

Readers of Ethics Etc might be interested in a new blog called Practical Ethics, which “provides a daily ethical analysis of the latest developments in science, technology and other current affairs.”

The authors are drawn from researchers at three research centres at the University of Oxford, the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics, the Program on the Ethics of the New Biosciences, and the Future of Humanity Institute.

What is unique about this blog is that the ideas expressed in the posts are intended to be one possible angle regarding ethical issues arising out of the new sciences, and DOES NOT necessarily reflect the opinion of the authors. Do check it out :)

Posted on February 18, 2008 at 6:32 pm in Bioethics, General Announcement, Practical Ethics, S. Matthew Liao's Posts | 2 Comments

August 17, 2007

Kamm’s Intricate Ethics: Chapter 7
By Guy Kahane

This chapter on moral status is very short, and also mercifully short on intricate imaginary examples. Kamm quickly takes us through a number of relatively familiar normative distinctions and I will try to be brief in recounting them here.

In the broadest sense, moral status simply refers to, roughly, an entity’s moral properties:

Moral status in the broad sense X’s moral status = what is morally permissible/impermissible to do to X

Now in this broad sense, rocks also have moral status: we’re permitted to do to them whatever we like. In common use, moral status refers to something narrower. Kamm thus turns to:

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Posted on August 17, 2007 at 8:06 pm in Bioethics, Guy Kahane's Posts, Kamm Reading Group, Normative Ethics, Value Theory | 10 Comments

July 11, 2007

Hempel’s Dilemma and Human Nature
By Rebecca Roache

The concept of human nature is an interesting one. This is partly because, although it’s a familiar concept, and one of which most people have at least a prima facie grasp; there are problems with arriving at a satisfactory, robust definition of it that will support normative philosophical claims. (For an account of some problems associated with defining human nature, see David Hull (1986) ‘On Human Nature‘, PSA 2: 3-13). In trying to understand it and work out how to tackle such problems, it’s interesting to look at similar concepts. One that I keep coming back to is the concept ‘physical’.

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Posted on July 11, 2007 at 8:58 am in Applied Ethics, Bioethics, Philosophy of Language, Rebecca Roache's Posts | 20 Comments