
released 3/20/2025
In this April 2015 lecture, William Hurlbut acknowledges the amazing therapeutic advances made in the field of neurobiology while raising ethical questions about its rapidly expanding scope and the temptation to go beyond healing to enhancement. Biotechnology is reshaping our ideas about human nature, health, and medicine, Hurlbut says, and we must take seriously concerns related to human dignity. He explores current advancements in the rewiring of the brain, the ethics of biotechnology beyond therapy, and specific dangers involved in new and future neurological interventions. Because there is no clear line between therapy and enhancement, we risk disrupting the unity of our being and losing our human dignity. Ethics must guide our way forward as we consider interventions made in the spirit of love.
The occasion for this talk was the second annual V. Elving Anderson Lecture in Science and Religion at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Hurlbut is the co-author of Altruism and Altruistic Love: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in Dialogue (Oxford University Press, 2002).
This lecture is provided courtesy of Anselm House.
62 minutes
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