CFP: Medicine, Technology, Ethics

Submission deadline: January 31, 2019

Conference date(s):
April 24, 2019 - April 26, 2019

Go to the conference's page

Conference Venue:

Department of History and Philosophy, University of the West Indies, Cave Hill
University Drive, Barbados

Topic areas

Details

Technological developments in medicine have rapidly moved beyond life-saving into various forms of human enhancement. While these may be seen as expanding our opportunities to live a good life and to achieve our ends, they also raise doubts about autonomy, fairness, and the nature of the post-human.

The 14th Cave Hill Philosophy Symposium aims to explore a range of ethical considerations arising from these concerns. We are interested in papers that consider, but are not limited to, questions such as: What is the good life and how might medical technology facilitate or inhibit achieving such? What role ought neuroscientific research to have on our notions of morality and ethical foundations? Do potential parents have a moral responsibility to use genetic enhancement to create the best possible child? Should professional sports people be allowed to use pharmaceutical and other medical interventions (likewise students, and persons in other work environments)? Should body modification, including surgical intervention be practised to attempt to achieve positional goods? What are the implications of neuroscientific research for the possibility of engineering morally good behaviour?

In keeping with the spirit of our conversations, we hope to bring together thinkers operating in and across different philosophical, political, and cultural traditions as well as other disciplines that share a boundary with philosophy.

Keynote speaker:  Professor Julian Savulescu (University of Oxford). His primary area of research is the ethics of various new or emerging technologies, including new methods of reproduction and enhancement of physical and cognitive performance through drugs or genetic manipulation. He is director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics.

Submission guidelines: Abstracts of 300-500 words should be sent as an attachment (Word-compatible or pdf format) by January 31, 2019 to[email protected]. Feedback on abstracts will be provided by February 7, 2019. Participants whose abstracts are accepted by the vetting committee will then be required to submit their completed papers via email as an attachment using .odt or .doc formats by the firm deadline ofMarch 192019. These papers will then be posted online for other participants to consult prior to the conference with the intention that time at the Symposium can be devoted more to discussion than to exposition of the written papers. 

Please submit all queries to [email protected].

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