In many of our past conferences, the Center has addressed some aspect of science, research, and technology as we explored a particular theme. However, we have never focused an entire conference on how bioethics relates to these specific areas. This summer that all changed, as we turned the collective attention of our 22nd annual summer conference in June to Science, Research, and the Limits of Bioethics.
Why this focus? Each year the Center is purposeful in choosing a theme for our conference that is relevant to what is occurring in academic bioethics, as well as issues that are on the horizon of our contemporary societal landscape at the intersection of medicine, science, technology, and our common humanity. We continue to witness the speed at which cutting-edge innovations in medical, scientific, and technological inquiry advance. As Nigel Cameron noted at this year’s conference, we are only at the very beginning of the digital revolution and change is exponential. “We have seen nothing yet.” While there are beneficial improvements transforming health and quality of life, these powerful advances do raise critical challenges in their implications for our individual and common humanity. We need to make ethical decisions today on both what we are for and what we would caution against, not waiting until potential uses of emerging technologies have moved so far down the road that we can no longer walk them back.
Dr. Michael J. Sleasman, the Center’s managing director and research scholar, reminded us during his opening address “Framing the Discussion” that there are many ethical dimensions in the rapidly evolving arenas of research. He outlined several questions for our consideration: How might we reclaim science as a noble pursuit of knowledge that stands in awe and wonder of God’s creation? Should medicine and technology function solely in the service of human flourishing, and if so, what are the implications? Does an ethics of non-power have something to offer us at the limits of bioethics?
Outstanding plenary speakers from across the spectrum of scientific and technological research, law, philosophy, and theology helped us answer these questions directly or indirectly through explaining what was on the horizon in their area of research. Topics ranged from “three parent embryo” techniques to treat mitochondrial disease, to the limits of moral bio-enhancement; from considerations of privacy and availability of data in a post-genomic era, to explaining the science and potential of affective computing and social robots, as well as addressing the need for further dialogue regarding the “ethical uses of scientific advancement” between the scientific and religious communities. Robert P. George, JD, DPhil; Maureen Condic, PhD; Rosalind Picard, ScD; Jimmy Lin, MD, PhD, MHS; Fabrice Jotterand, PhD; Jennifer J. Wiseman, PhD; and Nigel M. de S. Cameron, PhD, MBA provided wonderful insights in their respective fields. Each speaker reminded us of the awe and wonder of God’s masterful creation encountered in scientific inquiry, yet with the need to continue to raise ethical considerations.
In the final plenary session, Dr. Cameron summed up the conference theme well by focusing on where the future of technology is heading and how we might respond. As a society, we are poor at reflecting upon the future, but, as he noted, “only when we look ahead can we make proper decisions about what we should be doing now . . . today’s choices will set the parameters.”
Might we, as Dr. Sleasman suggested, learn something from an ethics of non-power? Might we choose to impose limits on our technological prowess, such that we would choose not to do everything that technology will make possible for us to do? According to Willem H. Vanderburg, “An ethics of freedom must be coupled with an ethics of non-power.” Adhering to an ethics of non-power could possibly lead to a reduction of power, helping to keep things on a human scale. Vanderburg goes on to argue that
an ethics of non-power would help to restore a certain control over life and the possibility of a society in which personal relations can be meaningful. To undertake almost everything made possible by technique, as is presently the case, undermines all non-technical values and hence the benchmarks by which non-technical behavior receives its meaning and value. This in turn leads to a reinforcement of ‘what can be done ought to be done.’ An ethics of non-power would break this vicious circle which is so destructive of human culture. It would thus lead to action that does not contribute to the growing power of technique.[1]
Dr. Cameron reminded us that the ethical enterprise is primarily about choices and the solutions we need are integrative in character. He proposed embedding the ethics into the technology in a similar way that an ethical vision for medical practice is embedded in the Hippocratic Oath. We need more than a list of rules, such that “we must practice technology with respect for the dignity of the individual and we must embed the moral vision in the technology and in our assumptions about the way it’s being applied.” He went on to mention just a few considerations we need to keep before us, “What is the agenda for human dignity, for privacy, for freedom, for the individual which lies at the heart of our vision of the Imago Dei? . . . in a world in which these pervasive technologies have significance which grows by the day.”
We are only at the cusp of the digital revolution. Will we be proactive in these early years and start to tackle these questions in light of our theological understanding and bioethical principles? If left alone, who will fill in the gap? This was a conference filled with significant insights for our medically, scientifically, and technologically advanced culture, but we just began to scratch the surface of some of the possible answers to these questions. There is, no doubt, further reflection and work to be done.
The Center invites you to join us in furthering our Christian bioethical engagement through next summer’s conference, Transformations in Care, June 16–18, 2016. This will be our 23rd summer conference and we are looking forward to having the following individuals join us as plenary speakers: Robert D. Orr, MD, CM; Carol R. Taylor, RN, PhD; Kevin FitzGerald, SJ, PhD, PhD; Gary B. Ferngren, PhD; and Michael J. Balboni, PhD, ThM, MDiv. Topics will include the transformations in clinical care and clinical ethics, professionalism and spirituality, along with developments in precision medicine and changing paradigms of care. We look forward to seeing you there for a wonderful charitable dialogue, networking, and fellowship!
[1] “Willem Vanderburg, “Technology and Responsibility: Think Globally, Act Locally, according to Jacques Ellul,” in Technology and Responsibility, ed. Paul Durbin (Dordrecht, Holland: D. Reidel Publishing, 1987), 128.
Jennifer McVey, "Science, Research, and the Limits of Bioethics: A Recap of Our 22nd Annual Summer Conference," Dignitas 22, no. 3 (2015): 6–7, www.cbhd.org/dignitas-articles/science-research-and-the-limits-of-bioethics-a-recap-of-our-22nd-annual-summer-conference.