A man stands poised, looking up above, neatly esconsed within a colorful DNA double-helix. This quintessential image of biology and its relation to human life appears on the conference packet for the Princeton Bioethics Forum's Third Biennial Intercollegiate Conference this weekend, entitled "Redefining Life: What it means to be Human."
Princeton will showcase several of its faculty members and alumni and members of other schools who have already lent their voices to the expanding topic of bioethics.
Lee Silver, a professor in the Wilson School and in the molecular biology department, and Glen McPhee, who earned his Ph.D. in philosophy and is now a faculty member at University of Pennsylvania, will kick off the conference today with the question, "Why does it matter what it means to be human?"
Other distinguished speakers include President Tilghman, President Emeritus Harold Shapiro, who once chaired Bill Clinton's National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and Representative Rush Holt, D-N.J., who earned the award for Biotech Legislator of the Year.
Princeton is part of an intercollegiate council of bioethics along with the University of Virginia, the University of Texas and other schools. Attendees will include students from Princeton and other colleges, including graduate students.
Forum co-chair Michael Kimberly '03, an independent concentrator in bioethics, hopes that the conference will elicit "brainstorms" among attendees.
The conference's agenda — in planning since spring 2002 — was designed to pose a specific thought-provoking question and have participants from perspectives as varied as biology and religion give their opinions on the topic. The forum also focuses on abortion, which poses many of the important questions raised by bioethicists and the general public.
Many events will feature two speakers who will have an allotted amount of time to state his or her position on a certain topic. The audience will then have an opportunity to question the speakers.
Kimberly said he believes none of these questions have irrefutable answers. He hopes the conference will simply plant "seeds for dialogue."
"In putting together the conference, I am reminded by what remarkable resources we have at Princeton," said Allison Arensman '04, co-chair of the forum and also an independent concentrator in bioethics.
Arensman said she believes it is a unique chance to have such an ensemble of participants from the field of bioethics. She hopes those who attend the forum will learn that bioethics is "not just [about] the cloning thing," she said.
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