The Department of Philosophy is pleased to present our annual Marshall Lecture in Public Philosophy at Saint Mary's University.
Our guest speaker this year is Dr. Françoise Baylis, CM, ONS, PhD, FRSC, FISC. Dr. Baylis is President of the Royal Society of Canada and Distinguished Research Professor Emerita, Dalhousie University.
Her lecture topic is "Designer Babies: The Science, the Tech, and the Crib".
Baylis’s talk will explore the ethical implications of CRISPR genome-editing technology for reproduction. As she wrote in her 2019 book, Altered Inheritance: “Designer babies, once found only in science fiction, have become a reality.” Now, we have to think seriously about what it might be like to live in a world where people who want to become parents can shop for designer babies at genetic supermarkets or request designer babies made-to-order.
Baylis will invite the audience to reflect on “what kind of world we want to live in” and whether heritable human genome editing technology will help us build that world.
Baylis is a philosopher whose innovative research in bioethics—at the intersection of policy and practice—has stretched the boundaries of the field. Her work challenges us to think broadly and deeply about the direction of health, science and biotechnology.
She is a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Nova Scotia, and an elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the International Science Council. In 2022, she was awarded the Killam Prize for the Humanities, and in 2023, she received the Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prize in Humanities—Canada’s most distinguished awards for humanities scholars. In 2023 she received the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal.
This free public lecture series tackles complex contemporary questions through the lenses of philosophy and ethics. All are welcome to attend. The talk starts at 7 p.m. and will be followed by a Q&A and reception.
Presented by the Department of Philosophy, with support from The Rowland Marshall Public Philosophy Lecture Fund. smu.ca/philosophy
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