Our research groups focus on biomedical ethics, the ethics of new technology, and practical ethics in the human services.
Biomedical ethics
Ethical issues related to issues in biomedicine have long been a core area of work in both practical and professional ethics. Issues regarding the creation and destruction of human life raise a cluster of ethical challenges and make moral demands on workers in the healthcare professions that workers in other areas do not often face. Our work in this area will focus on a number of related topics including conscientious objection, the ethics of vaccination, conceptual issues related to the idea of moral status and emerging disputes between liberals and conservatives regarding contentious issues in bioethics.
Group members
- Tamara Browne
- Steve Clarke
- Daniel Cohen
- Alberto Giubilini
- Hakan Coruh
- Michael Mawson
- Doug McConnell
- Francesca Minerva
- Justin Oakley
- Emma Rush
- Ruth Townsend
- Suzanne Uniacke
The ethics of new technology
The ethics of new technology is a branch of applied ethics concerned the ethical implications of new and future technologies. We consider how best to meet the ethical challenges posed by technologies such as: AI, GMOs, robotics, human enhancements, cyber-security, virtual reality, space travel, nanotech, terraforming, social media (including fake news and conspiracy theories), computer games, and drones. As technological progress rapidly expands the limits of what humanity can do, it is with often increased urgency that we must consider what we should do. The ethics of new technology seeks to establish such limits; balancing the fantastical opportunities such technologies grant, with the horrific threats they may also pose.
Group members
- Yeslam Al-Saggaf
- Christopher Bartel
- Oliver Burmeister
- Steve Clarke
- Khondker Jahed Reza
- Matthew Kopec
- Morgan Luck
- Anne Schwenkenbecher
- John Weckert
- Gary Young
Practical ethics in the human services
Participation in the professions has long been regarded as a source of significant moral issues. Society often grants specific professions monopoly or cartel control of a range of services, and as a matter of reciprocity professionals are expected to provide those services while abiding by codes of ethics and exercising fiduciary responsibilities towards their clients and other people in their care. Our work in this area will focus on practical ethical issues arising in the human service professions, defined broadly to include areas such as social work, policing, law, politics, and ministry.
Group members
- Wendy Bowles
- Tamara Browne
- Daniel Cohen
- Anna Corbo Crehan
- Hakan Coruh
- Daniel Halliday
- Clive Hamilton
- Matthew Kopec
- Seumas Miller
- Piero Moraro
- Emma Rush
- Anne Schwenkenbecher
- Monica Short
- Ruth Townsend
- Suzanne Uniacke
