We are pleased to present Changing Life as We Know It – Exploring the Role of Genetic Modification and Our Understanding of Humanity, a FASPE Symposium featuring keynote speaker Vardit Ravitsky, President and CEO of The Hastings Center, and panel discussions with leading bioethicists and FASPE alumni.

What are the ethical issues surrounding genetic modification? How do we define – and regulate – the line between benefit and harm? In what ways do these possibilities force us to make decisions about the value of life and impose judgments about what makes a life worth living – or even what is considered “normal”? We will discuss an example in history illustrative of the ways in which assigning genetic value engendered horrific results, wherein Nazi eugenicists and government policy makers identified those considered a genetic and financial burden on the population - and aimed through sterilization and, even (euphemistically), euthanasia to eliminate “life unworthy of life”. In what ways does this history caution us? We will focus on several scenarios wherein genetic modification presents complicated questions around intended and unintended possibilities and consequences - and ultimately how we understand what it means to be human. 

The program will serve to examine the ethical issues not just within medicine, but implicated within theology (and therefore the clergy), business (the ethical implications of commercialization), law (exploring the legal/regulatory roles, including recognizing the limitations imposed by the structural irrelevance of national borders), journalism (how it is described and written about will be fundamentally important in shaping understanding), and advances and uses of technology.

The Symposium will be held on Saturday, November 16, from 9 am to 6 pm at the offices of Holland & Knight in ManhattanRegistration is required to attend this event; please reserve your seat now by completing the form below if you plan to join us!

Keynote Speaker

Vardit Ravitsky, the Hastings Center, Garrison, NY

Vardit Ravitsky is President and CEO of the Hastings Center, an independent, nonpartisan bioethics research center that is among the most influential bioethics and health policy institutes in the world. She is a Senior Lecturer on Global Health and Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and past Full Professor at the Bioethics Program, School of Public Health, University of Montreal. She is Past President of the International Association of Bioethics and a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Ravitsky’s research focuses on the ethics of genomics and reproduction, as well as the use of AI in health. She published over 200 articles and commentaries on bioethical issues, and has given over 300 talks world-wide and over 400 media interviews.


Panelists

Devan Stahl is an Associate Professor of Bioethics and Religion at Baylor University and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Education, Innovation, and Technology at the Baylor College of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. in Health Care Ethics from St. Louis University and her M.Div. from Vanderbilt University. She specializes in theological bioethics, disability ethics, and the visual arts within medicine. Dr. Stahl also volunteers as a clinical ethicist consultant for the Supportive and Palliative Care Team at Baylor, Scott, and White Hillcrest and has trained as a hospital chaplain. Dr. Stahl is the cohost of the popular podcast Bioethics for the People, now in its sixth season. She is the author and editor of several book including, Imaging and Imagining Illness: Becoming Whole in a Broken Body (Cascade Books) Disability’s Challenge to Theology: Genes, Eugenics, and the Metaphysics of Modern Medicine (Notre Dame Press), and Bioenhancement Technology and the Vulnerable Body: A Theological Engagement.

Additional panelists:
Teresa Blankmeyer Burke, Ph.D.
Anna Louie Sussman 

Headshots and bios coming soon!


Program Schedule

The full symposium schedule will be shared prior to the event

9:30am – Welcome

9:45 – 10:45am – Understanding the Past: Nazi Eugenics, Thorsten Wagner

11:00-12:15 – Bioethical implications of genetic modification, Keynote speaker, Vardit Ravitsky

12:15-1:15 – Lunch

1:15-2:30pm -- Panel Discussion – Disability – This session will explore a series of scenarios surrounding parental choice about avoiding or inviting the conception of a genetically-deaf child.

2:45-4:00pm --  Panel Discussion – Enhancement – This session will explore a series of scenarios exploring different forms and contexts of hearing enhancement, allowing for panelists and audience members to think through the significance (if any) of enhancements achieved through mechanical assistance vs drugs vs epigenetic editing, as well as the significance of social context.