This event is free and open to the public. This event is cosponsored by The Program on Medicine and Religion at the University of Chicago, and The Albert Gnaegi Center for Health Care Ethics at Saint Louis University. For more information, contact info@lumenchristi.org.
How are new developments between biotechnology and big data including gene editing, brain-computer interfacing, and artificial intelligence changing our vision of what it means to be human? How does this bear in the ethical practices of medicine and research at the lab bench and at the bedside? How might an integrative vision of ethics contribute to this conversation? Are there alternative social imaginaries in which we can think about different technologies?
In this day-long spring symposium, scholars from the University of Chicago and the Chicagoland area are invited to discuss how biotechnology is shaping anthropology and whether the application of new biomedical technologies reflects an adequate understanding of human personhood.
This event is open to the public and seeks to engage particularly with current students, faculty, and medical practitioners interested in the intersection between science, medicine, technology, and theology. Publication of this program’s proceedings is a possibility. Participants are invited to return for a second symposium in fall 2024 on biotechnology and artificial intelligence.
Schedule
1:00 – 2:30 PM CT – Session 1
“Medicine Within the Technological Enframing” – Kyle Karches (Saint Louis University)
“The Grand Inquisitor, Mustapha Mond, and the Attack on the Transcendentals” – Stephen Meredith (University of Chicago)
Q&A, Moderated by Jeffrey Bishop (Saint Louis University)
3:00 – 4:30 PM CT – Session 2
“Our Biotechnologies, Ourselves: Reflections on Innovation, Identity, and Culture” – Lesley Rice (Pontifical John Paul II Institute)
“Beyond Ethics: A Humanities Perspective on (Bio)technology” – Silvianne Aspray (Cambridge University)
Q&A, Moderated by Jeffrey Bishop (Saint Louis University)
5:00 – 6:00 PM CT – Keynote Lecture
“Populations, Persons, and Precision Medicine: The Ethics of Emerging Information Technologies in Genetics and Medicine” – Paul Scherz (University of Virginia)
You can view abstracts and presenter details here
This event is made possible through the support of ‘In Lumine: Supporting the Catholic Intellectual Tradition on Campuses Nationwide’ (Grant #62372) from the John Templeton Foundation.
