Paul Wolpe

Paul Wolpe: Program Outlines

Re-Creation: The Biotechnological Restructuring of Life
The convergence of a variety of technologies – synthetic biology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, neurotechnology, and informational and computational technology – is already changing the way we diagnose and cure disease, reproduce, and enhance ourselves. As the biotechnology industries are developing astonishing new products, they their potential to infringe on people’s privacy and bodily integrity, and to change “human nature,” is raising troubling questions. In this talk, we look at the cutting-edge technologies that are changing our lives, the social, ethical, and legal challenges they will bring.

From Generation to Generation: Ethical Issues in Legacy Giving, End of Life Planning, and Philanthropy
The transfer of wealth is the transfer of power; that is, through charitable giving and inheritance we transfer monetary power from one person to another, or one generation to another. By doing so, moreover, we express our values – what is important to us, what kinds of lives and works we want to support. Whnever values and power are expressed, ethical conundrums arise. In this talk, we use case examples, including the interesting case of the Barnes Foundation in Merion, PA, to explore how to think about ethical questions that complicate our legacy and charitable giving.

Building Better Brains: How Neuroscience is Altering Human Functioning
With the advent of implantable brain chips, neural tissue transplants, brain-computer interfaces, and psychopharmaceutical advances, human beings will soon be able to micromanage their moods, enhance cognitive and affective skills and traits, "mind-read" through brain scanning, and replace brain functions with brain prosthetics. While millions have been spent exploring genetic enhancements, far less attention has been placed on brain enhancement, which has more immediate and perhaps profound implications. Considered one of the founders of the field of neuroethics, Dr. Wolpe will introduce these new technologies and explore their profound ethical and social implications.

Is My Mind Mine? Neuroscience, Privacy, and the Self
For the first time in human history, we are developing the ability to apprehend information directly from the brain. Brain imaging and allied technologies now allow scientists a glimpse into the subjective thoughts and inner dialogues that have always been private and inaccessible to others. By doing so, they are forever changing the very idea of privacy, raising thorny questions about who should have access to our innermost thoughts. In this talk, we explore the implications of brain imaging not only for personal privacy, but also for legal questions such as Fifth Amendment protections.

Designing Our Descendants: Reproductive Eugenics in the 21st Century
As genetic and reproductive technologies become more sophisticated, we will become increasingly able to choose the traits we want designed into our offspring. Genetic engineering tempts us with promises of eradicating genetically transmitted disease and susceptibilities, and frightens us with its history of selecting “desirable” and “undesirable” genetic traits. The ethical and social implications of human genetic engineering are explored with illustrations from current scientific research.

Borrowing Our Bodies: The Vexing Ethics of Human Medical Research
Human Medical Research has more institutionalized protections than virtually any other pursuit in the United States, and yet it is still periodically rocked by scandals, the suspension of research at some of our finest medical institutions, and reports of the deaths or exploitation of subjects who have volunteered their bodies to the scientific enterprise. Is the system really broken? Drawing from his experience doing Human Subjects Protections Audits at a number of Universities, Private Research Centers, and at NASA, and drawing on the landmark JAMA article on the issue he co-authored, Dr. Wolpe reviews the assumptions and problems underlying Human Experimentation and suggests some solutions to these vexing problems.

Ethical Leadership: Modeling Behavior with Integrity
A recent poll of top executives by the American Management Association asked, “What characteristics and skills are needed to be an effective leader today?” The number one answer was “Ethical Behavior.” Leadership is not only about inspiring, motivating, and taking responsibility for decisions. It is also about being modeling behavior in an organization. Ethical Leadership is a way of making decisions with integrity that reverberates throughout an organization.

Bioethics in Space: NASA and the Thorny Problems of Ethics in Extreme Environments
In 2004, President George W. Bush called on NASA to "gain a new foothold on the moon and to prepare for new journeys to the worlds beyond our own." In response to that statement, NASA began planning for long duration space flight to other planets. Space travel, however, poses a number of difficult medical and bioethical issues, some of which are unique to the space environment. While NASA is no longer actively planning for that journey, the challenge of providing medical care in extreme environments remains. In this talk, Dr. Wolpe, who serves as Senior Bioethicist for NASA, discusses the fascinating and troubling bioethical issues in both clinical care in space and in space-based human research.

The Munchkin Way of Death
In the Wizard of Oz, the Munchkin Mayor suggests that to legally verify the wicked witch’s death, one must assure that the person is “morally, ethically, spiritually, physically, absolutely, positively, undeniably, and reliably dead!” Exploring each of these categories, we look at the American way of determining death, controlling death, and caring for the dying. In the process, the discussion will range from brain death and transplantation, to physician assisted suicide and hospice care, from ancient conceptions of death to Ray Kurzweil’s suggestion that we will soon be able to download our personalities on computer and then upload them into a new body, in effect never dying.