2009 Press Releases
Embryonic Stem Cell Research – Opening a Pandora’s Box or a Can of Worms?
22.01.2009
The right to life is not absolute – Irish law permits taking life that is necessary/inevitable in order to avert a threat to the lives of others. Embryonic stem cell research raises the question of whether it should be legitimate to destroy life that is non-threatening where this might produce significant benefit to others.
22.01.2009
The right to life is not absolute – Irish law permits taking life that is necessary/inevitable in order to avert a threat to the lives of others. Embryonic stem cell research raises the question of whether it should be legitimate to destroy life that is non-threatening where this might produce significant benefit to others.
This proposition, if accepted, according to Professor Gerry Whyte of Trinity Law School, would undermine the principle that an individual should always be regarded as an end in herself and never as a means to an end.
In the next lecture of the Annual College of Science, Engineering and Food Science (SEFS) Public Lecture Series at UCC, Professor Whyte, in a lecture titled “Embryonic Stem Cell Research – Opening a Pandora’s Box or a Can of Worms?”, will explain that the only way in which embryonic stem cell research may be reconciled with a refusal to treat the individual as a means to an end is if it can be shown that the moral status of the embryo is qualitatively different to that of life at later stages of development. He examines the various arguments advanced in support of such differentiation and finds them unconvincing.
Professor Gerry Whyte is an Associate Professor in Trinity Law School and a Fellow of Trinity College. The author and co-author of books on public interest law, constitutional law and trade union law, he is a former member of the commission on Assisted Human Reproduction.
The lecture will be delivered on Wednesday, January 28th 2009 at 8.00 pm in Boole IV Lecture Theatre. The SEFS Annual Public Lecture Series is organised by Professor William Reville, Public Awareness of Science Officer, SEFS. The series of lectures will run weekly until Wednesday March 25th. Full details of the lectures can be consulted by visiting website http://understandingscience.ucc.ie/pages/SEFS_LectureSeries_2009.pdf
All the lectures will be filmed and the films will be posted on the UCC Public Understanding of Science website http://understandingscience.ucc.ie The 2007 and 2008 Public Lectures are already posted on this website.
Admission to the lectures is free, and as always, members of the public are invited to attend.
Picture: Professor Gerry Whyte
959MMcS
In the next lecture of the Annual College of Science, Engineering and Food Science (SEFS) Public Lecture Series at UCC, Professor Whyte, in a lecture titled “Embryonic Stem Cell Research – Opening a Pandora’s Box or a Can of Worms?”, will explain that the only way in which embryonic stem cell research may be reconciled with a refusal to treat the individual as a means to an end is if it can be shown that the moral status of the embryo is qualitatively different to that of life at later stages of development. He examines the various arguments advanced in support of such differentiation and finds them unconvincing.
Professor Gerry Whyte is an Associate Professor in Trinity Law School and a Fellow of Trinity College. The author and co-author of books on public interest law, constitutional law and trade union law, he is a former member of the commission on Assisted Human Reproduction.
The lecture will be delivered on Wednesday, January 28th 2009 at 8.00 pm in Boole IV Lecture Theatre. The SEFS Annual Public Lecture Series is organised by Professor William Reville, Public Awareness of Science Officer, SEFS. The series of lectures will run weekly until Wednesday March 25th. Full details of the lectures can be consulted by visiting website http://understandingscience.ucc.ie/pages/SEFS_LectureSeries_2009.pdf
All the lectures will be filmed and the films will be posted on the UCC Public Understanding of Science website http://understandingscience.ucc.ie The 2007 and 2008 Public Lectures are already posted on this website.
Admission to the lectures is free, and as always, members of the public are invited to attend.
Picture: Professor Gerry Whyte
959MMcS