Lecturer to address ethics of 'Genetics Revolution'
ANNE RACKHAM
Associate Editor
Religious and ethical people concerned about the moral implications of modern scientific techniques, such as cloning and genetic engineering, should push for discussion of such matters - in schools, at medical conferences, and in their churches and synagogues, says bioethicist Arthur Caplan.
"There is a real danger that we will feel ourselves victims of the scientific imperative. I resist that future," Caplan said in a telephone interview from his office at the University of Pennslyvania, where he is the director of the Center for Bioethics. "Technology doesn't do things. People make technology do things. If technology exists, the temptation to use it will be there. But people forget that we have modulated or shaped (the use of technology). We have put bans on things."
The often-quoted expert on ethical questions in science and medicine is scheduled to speak locally on the "Genetics Revolution" when he delivers the fifth annual Marshall Lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, March 27, in the Music Theatre building at Arizona State University. He is expected to speak on the ethics of a wide variety of modern medical-science techniques, including surrogate parenting, physician-assisted suicide, organ donation and cloning.
Caplan has been a health-policy adviser to President Bill Clinton. He also is the author of a syndicated newspaper column on ethics and is a frequent guest on CNN. Interviewed recently by USA Today about scientists in Scotland using a single cell to clone a sheep and whether human cloning may be close at hand, Caplan said, "People need to realize that what wasn't doable last week may be possible next week. Now this particular sheep has left the barn."
Caplan told the Jewish News this week that he has asked the Jewish Theological Society to sponsor a forum on genetic ethics as part of his ongoing encouragement of discussion on topical moral questions in medicine.
"There's absolutely no problem with bringing religion in, with tapping the important faith traditions and scholarship," said Caplan, who was raised as a Conservative Jew but said he doesn't affiliate with any particular synagogue in Philadelphia because "that would be controversial."
He said his Jewish roots, nevertheless, have affected his views of some bioethical questions - especially when it comes to the Holocaust pattern of the "slippery slope."
"A lot of the Holocaust's roots were in racist genetic thinking," Caplan noted.
The Marshall Lecture series is funded by grants from Jonathan and Maxine Marshall, former publishers of the Scottsdale Progress newspaper, and by the Marshall Fund of Arizona.
The lecture is free, but tickets are required. They are available in the ASU Social Sciences Building, Room 107; Changing Hands Bookstore, 414 S. Mill Ave., Tempe; Bookstar, 2073 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix, and 8919 E. Indian Bend Road, Scottsdale; and Brentano's in Scottsdale Fashion Square.
For more information, call Jane Barlow at 727-6186.
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