Public Bioethics and Contending Moral Anthropologies

September 15, 2014

Carter Snead

The Problem of Persons: Public Bioethics and Contending Moral Anthropologies

In this lecture, Prof. Snead will argue that the richest way to understand contemporary disputes in public bioethics is through the lens of moral anthropology. At bottom, such disagreements - over abortion, embryo-destructive research, assisted reproductive technologies, the definition of death, end of life decision making, and research involving human subjects - are conflicts regarding the nature and identity of human persons. The anthropological premises underlying the most prominent viewpoints in this domain will be illuminated and examined.