The first part of a 2004 lecture by Brent Waters, DPhil, originally delivered on the campus of Trinity International University. The lecture is entitled “Extending Human Life to what End: Ethical Reflections on Regenerative Medicine.”

Part I

Part III 

This presentation weaves together several of my ongoing and recent projects, including a computer ethics class that I teach regularly at the undergraduate and graduate level and a forthcoming article in the Encyclopedia of Christian Civilization (Blackwell), as well as elements from my dissertation work in theological ethics which focused on eschatological hope as a virtue.

Based on a Philip K. Dick short story, Minority Report is set in the year 2054. The “pre-crime division” of the police force is pilot-testing a program in which crimes are stopped before they are committed. John Anderton (Tom Cruise) leads pre-crime division made up of members who combine SWAT team/special forces skills to intervene in crimes and murders before they happen and thus save society from evil.

If the nineteenth century was the age of the machine and the twentieth century the information age, this century is, by most accounts, the age of biotechnology. In this biotech century we may witness the invention of cures for genetically linked diseases, including Alzheimer's, cancer, and a host of maladies that cause tremendous human suffering. We may see amazing developments in food production with genetically modified foods that actually carry therapeutic drugs inside them. Bioterrorism and high-tech weaponry may also be in our future.