[Sci-tech-public] STS Circle, March 7th - William Hurlbut - (Please RSVP)

[Harvard STS]

*STS Circle at Harvard*
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*William Hurlbut*
*Stanford University Medical Center*
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*Stem Cells, Embryos and Ethics: a Continuing Controversy *
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Monday, March 7th
12:15-2:00 p.m.
124 Mt. Auburn Street, Suite 100, Room 106

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Lunch is provided if you RSVP.
Please RSVP to sts <sts at hks.harvard.edu>@hks.harvard.edu<sts at hks.harvard.edu>
 by 5pm Thursday, March 3rd.

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*Abstract:* After more than a decade of debate, discord and political
maneuvering, the controversy over embryonic stem cell research continues.
 President Obama's executive order increasing the number of cell lines
available for federal funding has been challenged in court and awaits final
ruling; several cell lines approved under President Bush are no longer
considered ethically procured; and though there has been encouraging
progress with non-embryonic, alternative sources of pluripotent stem cells,
technical challenges remain and there are renewed calls for 'cloning' to
produce patient-specific cell lines for therapeutic use.  Moreover, public
frustration with the pace of progress with embryonic stem cells, and
promising studies with adult stem cells (including fetal cells) have added
troubling ethical issues of their own.  What is needed is a comprehensive
policy, grounded in coherent moral principles and solid science, that will
open a way forward with consensus--but, given the current political climate,
we may instead be heading for continuing controversy.

*Biography*: William B. Hurlbut is a physician and Consulting Professor in
the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University
Medical Center.  His primary areas of interest involve the ethical issues
associated with advancing biomedical technology, the biological basis of
moral awareness, and studies in the integration of theology and philosophy
of biology.  In addition to teaching at Stanford, he has worked with NASA on
projects in astrobiology and as a member of the Chemical and Biological
Warfare working group at Stanford’s Center for International Security and
Cooperation. From 2002-2009 Dr. Hurlbut served on the President's Council on
Bioethics. He is the author of Altered Nuclear Transfer, a proposed
technological solution to the moral controversy over embryonic stem cell
research.

A complete list of STS Circle at Harvard events can be found on our website:
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts/events/sts_circle/

---------------------------------
Samuel A. Evans, DPhil
Postdoctoral Fellow
& Chair of the STS Circle
Harvard University

Program on Science, Technology, & Society
Kennedy School of Government

http://www.hks.harvard.edu/sts
+1 (617) 496-0807
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