Paul Root Wolpe's TED Lecture: "It's Time to Question Bio-engineering"

Last November, Emory University bioethicist Paul Root Wolpe gave a TED lecture which included some chilling uses of animals in biotechnology. There are quite a number of important ethical and biological questions raised by the type of biotechnoloogy presented in Root Wolpe's talk. For example, though difficulties in making clear demarcations among and between species have long been discussed in the philosophy of biology literature, the work on animals we see in Root Wolpe's presentation has the potential to make those kinds of difficulties seem quaint and simplistic. Further, the ethical import and implications of this kind of research for notions like species, sex, gender, human, and animal are profound. Check out this 19:42 video.

Sex, Gender, Species Conference

I'm just recovering from a wonderfully engaging conference I co-hosted last weekend at Wesleyan called 'Sex, Gender, Species." Feminist engagement in and with animals studies is where it's at. The papers were theoretically provocative and expansive. For absracts go here. For scenes from the event go here. For a discussion from Scu, who gave a great presentation, go here.