ethics news & views

Our ethics, our biology: New Ethics, Science, and Society Initiative addresses 21st century

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is the most common disease of motor neurons in the human central nervous system; gradual loss of nerve cells eventually leads to respiratory failure and death. Scientists have already demonstrated that “gene therapy” can be used to prolong life in mice with ALS. If we can perform early, perhaps in utero, genetic testing for ALS and for all the rapidly growing number of genes that when mutant are known to result in early death, should we? Should we test without having a competent gene therapy protocol available? And if one becomes available, which is inevitable, should we employ it and prolong the lives of these children-to-be? The answers to these questions are clearly fraught with profound ethical, religious, scientific, and legal concerns.

Today, on the very day you are reading this, the earth will lose forever 40-250 species of organisms; and a quarter of a million new human beings will be born. Atlanta and its surrounding regions are suffering from drought and increasing daily temperatures. What are the implications of such global changes for us? For the environment? Are these two separate entities—“us” and “environment”? What can we do to improve the situation? Why don’t we do more? How can we more effectively educate our children on ecological issues?

The Center for Ethics and the Program in Science & Society of the Emory College Faculty Council have recently formed a partnership, the Initiative in Science, Ethics, and Society, to address these and other pressing social and scientific questions. The partnership combines the long-standing traditions, strengths, and interests of the Center with the undergraduate connections and science perspectives fostered by the Program in Science & Society.

Already our Initiative has begun to capture and focus the growing energy and interest in Bioethics among recent undergraduate classes. Last academic year, we enlisted the support of a strong group of students, led by Kelley Friedgen. Kelley is a recent graduate of Emory College and will be entering Emory’s Bioethics combined program in Law and Public Health in the fall of 2000. Her group of students invited Dr. Roy Vagelos, former CEO of Merck, and Dr. Stephen Thomas, of Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health, to Emory. Both gave captivating workshops and public talks, attracting a wide diversity of participants from the community.

Vagelos spun engrossing histories of his adventures in saving the lives, literally, of millions of people around the world. President and Mrs. Carter, Bill Foege, former head of the world eradication of smallpox project, the director of the Atlanta Black Arts Festival, and students from the College, and public health, medical, law and business schools enjoyed his visit. Thomas presented an arresting perspective on the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiments. He was joined by President Chace and JoAnn Chace, the Directors of the Center for Disease Control’s STD Division and new syphilis elimination program, and 100 students and local Atlantans.

As we hoped, these initial events catalyzed the bioethics discussion on campus and led to our sending five students to the 2000 National Undergraduate Bioethics Conference at the University of Virginia. These students – Bryce Mendelsohn, Scott Siera, Kelley Friedgen, Brad Miller, and Michael Nolen – won approval to have Emory host this conference in October 2001. They and others will be contributing to the next issue of Emory’s Science & Society webzine, Hybrid Vigor, which will concentrate on bioethics.

In the coming academic year the Initiative in Science, Ethics, & Society will focus the strong energy that has emerged from these events through the magnifying glass of Faculty Bioethics Coffees. Twenty Emory and Agnes Scott faculty have agreed to host coffees around a bioethics question of their choosing. These coffees will build momentum toward the 2001 National Conference. Also toward this end, we are co-sponsoring, with Dr. Peggy Barlett of Anthropology and the Emory Reconciliation Symposium, an Emory visit by renowned ecologist and environmentalist David Orr in January. So, stay tuned.

We are new and growing and welcome any ideas or questions. Please contact me at aeisen@emory.edu.

[ Posted by Arri Eisen at September 1, 2000 11:34 AM | More Science, Ethics & Society articles ]

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