The responsibilities of scholars in public debate: Challenging intuitive ethical considerations - Françoise Baylis

Big Thinking at Congress 2018

The responsibilities of scholars in public debate: Challenging intuitive ethical considerations

Traditionally, the university’s mission has been to produce and transmit knowledge. For some, the push to increase media presence — and to have university professors inform current affairs — is antithetical to this mission. In sharp contrast, Françoise Baylis believes that all who work in the academy are fundamentally public servants with a duty to share their knowledge with all. Doing so effectively requires both challenging traditional metrics of academic success and engaging with traditional and social media. Join Baylis as she defends this thesis, with insights from her academic and advocacy work on assisted human reproduction, conscientious objection and germline genome editing.

Françoise Baylis, C.M., O.N.S., Canada Research Chair in Bioethics and Philosophy at Dalhousie University