5.20.09
Contact:
Patrick Tucker
Senior Editor
THE FUTURIST
Director of Communications
World Future Society
301-656-8274
ptucker@wfs.org
5.20.09
Contact:
Patrick Tucker
Senior Editor
THE FUTURIST
Director of Communications
World Future Society
301-656-8274
ptucker@wfs.org
Bioethics Expert Arthur L. Caplan: Makes Arguments for and Against Bioengineering Human Beings at WorldFuture 2009
BETHESDA MD: The race for biomedical and genetic
enhancement will—in the twenty-first century—be what
the space race was in the previous century,
according to members of the World Future Society.
Scientists can already screen fertilized human eggs
for 1,000 genetic disorders. Within a decade,
researchers will be able to detect most of the
world’s congenital diseases parentally, this could
will enable humans to live to ages of two hundred
years old. Some genetics expert predict science will
soon be able to genetically “enhance” embryos with
the potential for super-intelligence, phenomenal
strength, or preternatural ability. What is
possible? What are the moral and ethical
implications of these new technologies?
Arthur L. Caplan, Director of the Center of
Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, will
address these and other questions at WorldFuture
2009, the annual conference of the World Future
Society.
“In recent years, many thinkers and policy makers
have made it clear that they are unnerved by the
prospect of people bioengineering themselves to
enlarge their breasts, smooth out their wrinkles,
mellow their moods, pep up their memories, and
otherwise engage in self-improvement or
enhancement,” says Caplan. “What are the best
arguments for and against seeking self-improvement
through medicine, genetics, bioengineering ,and
biochemistry?”
Caplan is the author or editor of twenty-five books
and more than 500 papers in refereed journals of
medicine, science, philosophy, bioethics and health
policy. He is the recipient of many awards and
honors including the McGovern Medal of the American
Medical Writers Association, Person of the Year-2001
from USA Today, one of the fifty most
influential people in American health care by Modern
Health Care magazine, one of the ten most
influential people in America in biotechnology by
the National Journal and one of the ten most
influential people in the ethics of biotechnology
over the past ten years by the editors of the
journal Nature Biotechnology. He writes a regular
column on bioethics for MSNBC.com.
Founded in 1966 as a nonprofit educational and
scientific organization in Washington, D.C., the
World Future Society has members in more than eighty
countries around the world. Individuals and groups
from all nations are eligible to join the Society
and participate in its programs and activities..
The Society holds a two-day, international
conference once a year where participants discuss
foresight techniques and global trends that are
influencing the future. Previous conference
attendees have included future U.S. President Gerald
Ford (1974), Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy
(1975), behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner (1984),
age-wave expert Ken Dychtwald (2005), U.S.
comptroller general David M. Walker (2006), and
scientist and inventor Ray Kurzweil (2006).
This year's speakers include: Ambassador John W. McDonald, Robert D. Atkinson, former project director of the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, labor expert John Challenger, longevity expert Michael Zey, bioweapons expert Barry Kellman, and bestselling author of Grown Up Digital, Don Tapscott.
More information and registration can be obtained from The World Future Society's Web site. www.wfs.org
CONTACT INFORMATION
Patrick Tucker
World Future Society
Email World Future Society
301-656-8274
301-656-8274