Patrick Lee, Director
The Program in Bioethics and Human Dignity seeks to address urgent questions pertaining to the treatment of human beings at every stage of development and in all conditions. Its special focus is on questions of what is owed, as a matter of justice, to those in the earliest stages of life and those in the weakest and most vulnerable conditions. The Program seeks to identity sound principles of justice and human rights to govern the development and use of biotechnologies. It also seeks to identify standards by which to evaluate proposals for "enhancing" human beings by interventions designed to make them smarter, stronger, and more beautiful, or "better" in other ways. Subjects of the Program's study include embryo-destructive research, alternative sources of pluripotent stem cells, genetic enhancement, embryo adoption, abortion, euthanasia, human cloning, and human-chimera formation.