Announcing...Associate Professsor Robert Sparrow

Associate Professor Robert Sparrow works in the School of Philosophical, Historical and International Studies at Monash University.  Broadly, his areas of interest and political philosophy and applied ethics with an emphasis on philosophical arguments with real world implications.  More specifically, Associate Professor Sparrow's work has included consideration of the ethics of reproductive technology and its implications for our ideas about normal human bodies and the importance of genetic relatedness, the ethics of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis and robotics, including military robotics, robotic companions and robotics and aged care.  A list of Professor Sparrow's journal publications can be found here: http://profiles.arts.monash.edu.au/rob-sparrow/

Lethal Autonomous Robots Must be Stopped in their Tracks: The Conversation

TechDebate: Lethal Autonomous Robots

Associate Professor Sparrow's presentation will be on:

Better Than Men? Genetic Technology and the Future of Mankind

A number of influential bioethicists and philosophers are now arguing that the proper goal of medicine should include “human enhancement” – the quest to make people “better than well”. In particular, Professor Julian Savulescu, at Oxford University, and Professor John Harris, at the University of Manchester, have argued that we are morally obligated to use technologies of genetic selection and genetic modification to have “the best children possible”. In this talk I will explain and evaluate their arguments and suggest that they have a surprising implication for the future of mankind.