Prof. Dr. Denis Alexander: Science, Faith and Ethics
Abstract
Scientific discoveries are continually being made that require considerable ethical reflection with respect to their application, but science itself (meaning here the natural sciences) cannot decide on ethical issues. So which ethical principles should we prioritise in the applications of science? This lecture will discuss the 'ethical tool-kit' used by science ethics committees around the world: Natural Law ethics; Utilitarianism; Deontological ethics; and Virtue Ethics. We will reflect on how religious principles interact with these four perspectives. The lecture will assess the strengths and weaknesses of the 'ethical tool-kit' in its application to recent scientific advances, for example in genetic engineering, as in the latest applications of CRISPR/Cas and embryo editing.
Kurzbiographie
Kurzbiographie
Denis Alexander is the Emeritus Director of The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion and Emeritus Fellow of St Edmund’s College, Cambridge. Dr Alexander was previously Chairman of the Molecular Immunology Programme and Head of the Laboratory of Lymphocyte Signalling and Development at The Babraham Institute, Cambridge. Prior to that he was at the Imperial Cancer Research Laboratories in London (now Cancer Research UK), and spent 15 years developing university departments and laboratories overseas, latterly as Associate Professor of Biochemistry in the Medical Faculty of the American University of Beirut, Lebanon.
There he helped to establish the National Unit of Human Genetics. He was initially an Open Scholar at Oxford reading Biochemistry, before obtaining a PhD in Neurochemistry at the Institute of Psychiatry in London.
Dr Alexander writes, lectures and broadcasts widely in the field of science and religion. From 1992-2013 he was Editor of the journal Science & Christian Belief, and previously served as a member of the executive committee of the International Society for Science and Religion. He gave the Gifford Lectures at St. Andrews University in 2012 and these were published by CUP under the title "Genes, Determinism and God".