Ethox Seminar - Polygenic Risk Scores and Reproduction: Ethical, Legal and Social Issues
Professor Julian Savulescu
Monday, 07 October 2024, 10.30am to 12pm
This will be a hybrid seminar in LG Seminar Room 0, Big Data Institute (Old Road Campus), and on Zoom (see joining link below).
Abstract
The talk focuses on ethical and legal aspects of the use of polygenic scores in genetic selection. I will outline the possibility of using polygenic scores to select embryos which are healthier and have greater potential for enjoying well-being and behaving morally. I will outline some new data on public acceptability and propose a model for law reform: the harm-based model for regulating genetic selection.
BIOS
Professor Julian Savulescu is the Chen Su Lan Centennial Professor in Medical Ethics at the National University of Singapore, where he directs the Centre for Biomedical Ethics. An award-winning ethicist and moral philosopher, he trained in neuroscience, medicine, and philosophy, going on to hold the Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics (2002) at the University of Oxford, where he founded the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics in 2003, before moving to NUS in 2022.
He co-directs the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities. He is Distinguished Visiting Professorial Fellow at Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and Melbourne Law School, where he directs the Biomedical Ethics Research Group. Professor Savulescu was editor in chief of the Journal of Medical Ethics for a period of 12 years over two tenures, and founded the open access Journal of Practical Ethics.
He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bucharest.