Volume LVI
Salem College, Winston-Salem, N. C. - Thursday, April 4, 1974
Number 14
Symposium Examines Role of Ethics in Technological World
Is (technology leading man to
ward a great new civilization or
toward his ultimate destruction?
Is man in control of this massive
accumulation of scientific knowl
edge or is he being controlled by
its dehumanizing powers?
These are two of the major
issues to be discussed in Salem
College’s two-day symposium to
be held Wednesday and Thursday,
April 10 and 11. The topic of the
symposium is “A Matter of Life
andjDeath: Ethics in a Techno
logical World.” Representatives
from the Hastings Center, includ
ing its director, Daniel Callahan,
will lead the exploration into
questions involving such issues
as: genetic engineering, popula
tion jcontrol, and death.
An unusual program format has
been designed by the Institute to
actively involve every person at
tending. The symposium will be
conducted as a mock legislative
session, with Institute speakers
debating particular questions, then
putting them to the vote. By
necessitating a personal apprai
sal, it will induce each person in
the audience to take a hard look
at each issue from his own set of
values, ethics, beliefs.
“This will not be an intellectual
game but a very real attempt to
look at crucial issues in medical
ethics on which we all may have
to vote in the near future,” ex
plained one Symposium Commit
tee member.
“The time is here when every
person should be prepared to de
cide for himself what it means
to be human.”
The Hastings Institute which
willsconduct the Symposium was
conceived in 1968 by Daniel Cal
lahan, a philosopher and former
editor of Commonweal. Callahan
developed the idea for such an
institute when he realized the
need for a continual study of
ethical questions raised by the
scientific revolution of the 20th
century. The question of abortion
and all its ramifications—medical,
legal, ethical and social pointed
up to Callahan the need for re
search groups to handle issues
like abortion and other subjects
of enormous public attention and
argument.
Such questions as the manipu
lation of large groups of people
by smaller elite groups (behavior
control), the capacity to create
life in the test tube, test tube
babies, now only a hairsbreadth
away from reality (genetics), and
the ability of doctors to keep the
body machinery operating after it
is no longer clear whether the
patient is alive or dead (death
and dying) are all under close
scrutiny at the Hastings Institute.
The symposium will begin at
11:00 a.m. Wednesday at which
time Dr. Chandler will give wel
come. Dr. Callahan will then
present a short keynote address
to familiarize the audience with
the concept of the study. There
will be a series of 3 sessions in
which presentations will be made
by associate directors of the Insti
tute. Informal coffees will be held
throughout the two days. A com
plete schedule has been printed
in this issue of the newspaper.
The speakers for the Sympo
sium include Dr. Callahan, Direc
tor of Hastings Institute; Dr.
Marc Alan Lappe’ the Institute’s
associate for the biological sci
ences, and Dr. Robert M. Veatch,
the Institute’s associate for medi
cal ethics.
Dr. Callahan holds the B.A.
degree from Yale University, the
M.A. in philosophy from George
town University, and the Ph.D. in
philosophy from Harvard Univer
sity. He has taught at Harvard,
Temple University, Brown Uni
versity, Marymount College, Un
ion Theological Seminary and the
University of Pennsylvania. His
books include “The Tyranny of
Survival,” “Abortion: Law, Choice
and Morality,” and “The New
Church.” He has edited many
others and his articles have ap
peared in various magazines in
cluding Daedalus and Harper’s.
Dr. Veatch was a research as
sociate in medicine at Columbia
University from 1971-72, a teach
ing fellow at Harvard Divinity
School from 1988-70, instructor in
the U. S. Peace Corps Training
Program (1966), instructor at Og-
bomosho Grammar School, Og-
bomosho, Nigeria (1963-64) and
assistant lecturer at the Univer
sity of Ife, Ibadan, Nigeria (1963).
His degrees include the B.S. from
Purdue University, M.S. from the
University of California Medical
Center, B.D. from Harvard Divin
ity School, and M.A. and Ph.D.’s
from Harvard University. He has
two forthcoming books: “Death
and Dying and the Biological
Revolution,” and “The Teaching
of Medical Ethics.”
Dr. Lappe holds the B.A. de
gree from Wesleyan University
and the Ph.D. from the Univer
sity of Pennsylvania. He also
studied at Weizmann Institute,
Rehovoth, Israel, the University
of California at Berkeley and the
University of Washington. He has
held teaching posts at the Free
University, at the University of
Pennsylvania, at the University
of California and at State Uni
versity of New York at Purchase.
He has also served as consultant
in biology to Worth Publishers
(New York) from 1969-70. In 1972
he was named principal investi
gator of the NIH grant to study
Social and Legal aspects of Hu
man Genetic Research.
Schedule
’Wednesday
11 a.m.
Hanes Auditorium Welcome —
Dr. John H. Chandler
Keynote Address —
Dr. Daniel Callahan
2 p.m. Hanes Auditorium “How Should We Intervene In
Our Genetic Futures ?”
Presentation — Dr. Marc Alan
Lappe
Response — Dr. Callahan
Thursday
9:30 a.m. Hanes Auditorium “Dying and The Biological
Revolution”
Presentation — Dr. Robert M.
Veatch
Response — Dr. Lappe
2 p.m. Hanes Auditorium “Population Control — With
Dignity”
Presentation — Dr. Callahan
Response — Dr. Veatch
Summary
Church Street group says, “Let the ^ass grow and stay
They want those chains to come tumbling down.
green.
Modern Science Poses Difficult Questions Concerning Man and His Morals
. . , ^ 1... inctrn. oa] imnlication.s have scarcelv will depend upon these answei
Editor’s Note: The following ar
ticle is comprised of quotations
from an article written by Rob-
bert Sinsheimer. Sinsheimer is
Chairman of the Biology Depart
ment at the California Institute
of Technology. In his discussion
of the advances of biology in the
20th [century, he addresses some
of the issues to be presented in
the Symposium.
The man of today lives in a
very different physical environ
ment than did the man of three
centuries past. He is immersed
in the products and conveniences
of technology — a technology de
rived from a profound under
standing of the nature and or
ganization of inanimate matter,
and intended to adopt the forces
and substances of nature to man’s
pwposes. Man has increased
mightily in numbers since he se
lected a few grains and adapted
them for cultivation — he has
defoliated some areas, eliminated
some predators and converted
mrge portions of the earth’s sur
face to a few crops.
In laboratories and institutes
aroMd the world, biologists are
probmg the most complex nature
®d organization of living matter.
have already discovered
nnd (clarified many of the “se
crets” of ife. They understand
the origin of the “animate’^ of
animal matter, the self-contained
organization of the cell and the
remarkable phenomena of inheri
tance; they can trace in increas
ing detail the changes in molecu
lar pattern that underlay the
long evolution of life from its as
tonishing beginning until today.
They begin even to envision the
principles of brain organization
that underline perception and
willed action.
Out of this knowledge, one can
see emergent the outlines of a
possible whole new technology in
tended to adapt animate matter
to man’s purposes, if we so wish;
and that, in ultimate paradox,
includes man himself.
Biochemical and physiological
and genetic understanding have
already led to the discovery of
many substances to improve
man’s health: antibiotics for
microbial disease, hormones for
metabolic defects, special diets
for some genetic “errors of ine-
tabolism,” palliative drugs for
psychic trauma. The advance of
biochemical technology vvill soon
bring man-invented proteins, hor
mones, genes or viruses to per
mit the modification of life pro
cesses with a power and precision
previously unknown.
Complex new miniature instru
ments born in the electronic la
boratories of the space and
adapted to the needs of the body
give promise of remarkable pro
sthetic devices — ultimately of
new organs for sound or sight, of
artificial hearts, of diagnostic
monitors for physiological states.
New technologies bring new
powers and new powers bring
new responsibilities. Whenever
man intervenes to displace the
balance that nature has provided,
then he must restore a balance
by conscious design. How much
shall we wish to change the natu
ral order — to adapt the animate
world to human purpose? What
is our responsibility for all the
forms of life on earth? What prin
ciples should guide the physical
or chemical modification of man?
How much shall we wish to
change the natural state of man
and how shall the cost of such
modification be borne? How much
resource shall we devote to the
extension of a life, to the pro
vision of sight, to the elimina
tion of a defective gene or to the
“creation” of a remarkable in
dividual? These possibilities
which are now envisioned are new
in the history of the human
species — so new that their
ethical and social and philosophi
cal implications have scarcely
been explored.
It and when man acquires the
ability to alter the human in
heritance in specific directions,
what directions should be chosen
— and who will choose? What
happens in a society if the chance
elements or heredity are replaced
by human design?
The answers to these questions
are not to be found in our existent
mores, for these are novel prob
lems. The answers will have to be
found, and then the choices made,
from reflection upon the very
deepest principles underlying our
perception of man, his future and
his relation to other men and to
the universe about him.
Men differ in their understand
ing of these principles and in
their acceptance of change. In
deed, we seldom directly confront
the foundations of our society, for
they are so imbedded in our cul
ture that to do so challenges our
very sense of place and reality.
But consideration of the new
questions will brook no delay or
events will create their own an
swers.
In a democratic society there
should be the most extensive dis
cussion of these basic issues,
for the nature of the democracy
will depend upon these answers.
Until now, the only means avail
able to change the character of
men have been education and
communication, in its varied
forms. The basic purposes of ed
ucation and communication have
been, in general, evident to those
concerned; it has been an ob
jective of our society to make the
means of education and com
munication available to all. How
much the fundamental character
of man has been changed by
these means is debatable. The
chemical means now envisioned
for the modification of man may
be much more powerful — and
thus some fear more irreversible
— and certainly more difficult to
comprehend.
Only a few skilled in the arts
of molecular biology may ever
understand in detail the complex
relations between a molecular
structure and a human trait.
The application of this new
knowledge would surely involve
an intricate new technology — a
technology intended to affect the
inner essence of specific persons.
How shall we contain and apply
this special knowledge within
our democratic principles?