Protecting the essence of being human
By Beth Frank
What would it be like to live until 125, or even 150? What
would it mean for our families, to have five or six generations
alive at once? How would that change how our society functions?
 These aren’t idle questions. The technology exists—or
is not far away—to prolong and alter human life. Yet
society has not fully grappled with the consequences of these
possibilities.
These issues are at the heart of this year’s Massey
Lectures—The
Ethical Imagination—delivered by bioethicist Dr. Margaret
Somerville. Part four of the series—From Homo sapiens
to Techno sapiens: Protecting the Essence of Being Human—is
being hosted by the
University of Calgary on Oct. 19.
Somerville, considered by many as Canada’s conscience,
is a leading expert in bioethics and a frequent commentator
on these issues. She is the founding director of the Centre
for Medicine, Ethics and Law at McGill University, where she
is a professor in both the faculties of law and medicine.
In her lecture at U of C, she ponders the ramifications of
transhumanism—the use of info-, bio-, nano-, robotic
and artificial intelligence technologies to alter the fundamental
nature of being human.
“Life prolongation would give us up to four concurrent
generations capable of being in charge,” Somerville wrote
in the Calgary Herald last week. “We
have no experience with such a situation, and our institutions
are not designed to accommodate it.”
Somerville’s lecture at U of C is the fourth of five
delivered at universities across Canada during the month of
October.
This high-profile series is named in honour of the late Governor
General of Canada, Vincent Massey, and is sponsored by CBC
Radio, Massey College at the University of Toronto and House
of Anansi Press.
The Massey Lectures are part of CBC Radio’s Ideas series,
and form the cornerstone of Somerville’s recently released
book, The Ethical Imagination.
Previous Massey lecturers have included Martin Luther King,
Jr., Northrop Frye, Noam Chomsky and Doris Lessing. In 2003,
Thomas King, an award-winning aboriginal writer and scholar
of Cherokee and Greek descent, delivered a Massey Lecture at
U of C.
Tickets ($15 for adults; $10 for stuents and seniors) are
still available and can be purchased at Ticketmaster, 777-0000.
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