Bioethics and Freedom of Speech
On Monday, November 7, 6.30 p.m. philosopher Professor John Harris (University of Manchester) will give a lecture on problems which arise through new forms of publicness for utterances of bioethicists on controversial topics. The public lecture entitled "Bioethics and Freedom of Speech" will take place at lecture hall F5 of the Fürstenberghaus, Domplatz 20–22.
Bioethics and Freedom of Speech
This lecture is primarily about the personal and public responsibilities of ethics and of ethicists, indeed of all citizens, in speaking, writing and commenting about issues of ethical, political and social significance. Issues like embryo research, abortion, euthanasia, cloning, genetic manipulation vaccine research are all both sensitive and controversial. Some raise legal and issues and some research which is legal and accepted in some parts of Europe is criminal and rejected in others. It will be argued that discussion of all such issues is now necessarily, actually or potentially in the public domain in ways that make any self-conscious decision about intended publics or audiences problematic. This raises acute questions of freedom and of personal and public responsibility.
Professor John Harris is the director of the Institute for Science, Ethics and Innovation at the University of Manchester. He was one of the Founder Directors of the International Association of Bioethics and, until 2011, joint Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics. He was elected a Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences in 2001 and a Fellow of The Royal Society of Arts in 2006. In 2012 and 2013 he is in Münster as a Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study in Bioethics. John Harris has acted as Ethical Consultant to national and international bodies and corporations including the European Parliament and The World Health Organisation. As the author or editor of 19 books and more than 250 papers in leading philosophical and science journals, John also frequently appears in the media to discuss Biomedical Ethics, Medical Jurisprudence and related issues.