Le Provocateur

Issue date: 3/20/03 Section: News Stories

Dr. Gilbert Meilaender addresses the crowd last Thursday

On March 13, 2003, from 7:00 p.m. to about 8:30 p.m., in La Maison Francaise, in the Salon, a member of the President's Bioethics Council gave his speech entitled "Retaining the Bio in Bioethics." The speaker, Dr. Gilbert Meilaender is renowned in the field of bioethics.

First Meilaender broke the ice with a joke or two, and then introduced the topics he would be talking about. The first major topic was that of Unity and The Integrity of The Human Being, which contrasted the purely physical definition of the human being (he gave the example of a head or brain) with the purely non-physical. He stated that we are "tempted toward duality," but concluded this topic with a definition of a human being as a "unity of person."

The second major topic, entitled Finity & Freedom, contrasted the finiteness of our capabilities with the 'no limits' attitude of freedom. He said that in terms of religious language, the dangers of either of these two would be said to be either pride or sloth. Pride is exhibiting a sort of Greek hubris; man would be usurping the prerogatives of the gods in his zealous desire to know. Sloth entails a fear of freedom that could impose a stumbling block to new possibilities.

In the third major topic, entitled Relations between Generations, Dr. Gilbert Meilaender addressed opposing viewpoints of 'product' versus 'gift'. On the one hand, children bring the gift of parenthood, but on the other, some people have children to fulfill certain ends of their own. He explained that with modern techniques including psychopharmacology, genetic screening and cloning, the family today is less secure.

The fourth and final major topic, which he entitled Suffering and Vulnerability, dealt with the often-opposing issues pitting the desirability of maintaining an individual life in whatever state against the imperative of holding all human life as having certain intrinsic value. Such issues argued that all human embryos ought to be protected.

Meilaender's conclusion made the point that while striving to reach the world's limits for human achievement, we should not cross certain boundaries. We should recognize that there must be a right order for competing 'goods.' Afterward, Meilaender answered questions and then signed copies of his book Things That Count.

Professor Leonard Sorenson asked about the methods available to government to influence the directions of research. "If you presume public funding could be used as a lever, and that patent power could have some bearing on it, is there any public authority over these spheres?"

Continued...

Page 1 of 2 next >

Article Tools