News Archive
"Altered Inheritance" Author Featured at McDonald-Merrill-Ketcham Lecture
02/20/2020
Professor Françoise Baylis of Dalhousie University was presented with the 2020 McDonald-Merrill-Ketcham Award at the 23rd annual lecture on February 14 at the IU Robert H. McKinney School of Law.
An acclaimed bioethicist, author, founder and leader of NTE Impact Ethics, an interdisciplinary research team based at Dalhousie University, Professor Baylis presented a case for striving for a consensus on decisions about the use of genetic technology in her lecture, “Altered Inheritance: CRISPR and the Ethics of Human Genome Editing.”
Her book by the same name, published in 2019 by Harvard Press, was recently recognized with a Professional and Scholarly Excellence (PROSE) Award in the category of Clinical Medicine from the Association of American Publishers for 2020.
In discussing the complex science, politics, theory and practice behind what was once science fiction—the editing of human DNA, advancing reproductive technologies and “designer babies”—Professor Baylis made the case for encouraging consensus building to establish international frameworks.
As she explained the recent and fast-paced science of human germline editing—changing heritable DNA in sperm, eggs or embryos to make genetically modified children—Professor Baylis also argued that a global moratorium on the technology is a necessary step.
She called for “public empowerment” to clarify misconceptions and understand ethical and societal concerns that are too important to be left to scientists alone to decide. Professor Baylis also raised questions regarding the impact on women, and what “informed choice” means for research participants.
“CRISPR is a story of power, wealth, competition, inequality and exclusion,” Professor Baylis said. “There’s no reason why we couldn’t make it a narrative about social justice and social solidarity, neighborliness and community, cooperation and reciprocity, equality and inclusion. But we have to wrap it around a different set of values in order to re-order the discussion.”
After her lecture, the discussion continued with panelists Emily Munson, ’17, M.A., J.D., LL.M, an Indianapolis attorney leading the employment practice group at Indiana Disability Rights; Tyler T. Cho, Ph.D., J.D., a patent attorney assisting clients in intellectual property matters at Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP; and Peter H. Schwartz, M.D., Ph.D., director of the IU Center for Bioethics and Associate Professor of Medicine and Scholar in Bioethics, IU School of Medicine and Associate Professor of Philosophy, IU School of Liberal Arts, at IUPUI.
The annual MMK Lectureship and Award is supported by a bequest to the IU McKinney School of Law and the Indiana University School of Medicine. This lecture and award bring leading scholars and policy makers in the fields of law and medicine to the Indianapolis campus for the benefit of students, faculty, the bar, and the medical community.
