Oxford Martin School: Public Lectures And Seminars

What is science for, what good does it do and should it do good? In this lecture, Sulston and Harris will attempt to identify some of the most urgent ethical and regulatory problems raised by contemporary science, and suggest some possible solutions. They will discuss some key cutting edge scientific problems, and debate how we can assess their impact. Where do the significant ethical and regulatory dilemmas for science lie? Are we worrying about the right things? They will also address the crucial issue of international or "global" co-ordination at the level of regulation. What happens when research is illegal - criminalised in some jurisdictions and permitted in others or when products or services are freely available in some countries and denied to the citizens of others? Is harmonization necessary or can we live with a plurality of regulatory environments? Finally, they will raise the question of who owns science. They will suggest that scientific co-operation - the freedom of science to operate across