New research into lifespan-extending technology and self-control

01 December 2010

Two James Martin Fellows from the Institute for Science and Ethics (formerly the Programme on Ethics of the new Biosciences) have won prestigious grants to begin cutting edge research.

Dr Bennett Foddy has received a Wellcome Trust Research Fellowship in Biomedical Ethics to undertake a project on the ethical use of lifespan-extending technology. With an ever-increasing array of new technologies, now is the moment to establish and ask the ethical questions associated with the ability to use technology to extend life. Dr Foddy will begin work on this project in May 2011.

Meanwhile, Professor Neil Levy has secured funding from the Australian Research Council for a project to develop a philosophically and scientifically sophisticated account of the nature of self-control. The funding will provide tools for allocating responsibility for failures of self-control and will contribute to the development of means for enhancing it, thereby aiding in addressing major social problems.

The Institute for Science and Ethics brings together ethicists, doctors and scientists, as well as law and policy experts, to explore the ethical questions arising from the advances in science and technology. The Institute has recently changed its name from the ‘Programme on Ethics of the New Biosciences’ to better reflect a broader set of ethical challenges arising from environmental and cognitive science, as well as the biosciences.