Richard Kass Will Discuss the Ethics of Cloning

Richard Kass Will Discuss the Ethics of Cloning

BY PHILIP MONTGOMERY
Rice News Staff
April 15, 1999

Leon Richard Kass, a leading, and sometimes controversial, expert in the field
of medical ethics, will wrestle with some of the issues surrounding human cloning
during his April 15 lecture at Rice.

Kass, the Addie Clark Harding Professor in the College and the Committee on
Social Thought at the University of Chicago, will deliver the next and final
talk in the 1998-99 Rice University Lecture Series on Ethics, Politics and Society.
He will give his talk titled "Procreation or Manufacture? What’s Wrong
with Human Cloning" at 4 p.m. in Mc-Murtry Auditorium of Anne and Charles
Duncan Hall. The lecture is free and open to the public. Seating is limited.

"Leon Kass is a truly remarkable thinker and social critic," said
Larry Temkin, professor of philosophy and director of the lecture series.

Kass earned his medical degree at the University of Chicago and a doctorate
in biochemistry at Harvard, where he worked in the laboratory of Nobel Prize-winner
Konrad Bloch, who shared the award for discovering how cells produce cholesterol.

Kass was eminently prepared to make his mark as a research scientist in the
fields of medicine and biochemistry, Temkin said. After producing a string of
eight scientific publications in three years, Kass turned his attention to issues
of biomedical ethics and the human condition.

"He has written on a wide range of fundamental social issues, from cloning,
infanticide and in vitro fertilization–and more generally birth, death and
the meaning of life–to courtship, marriage, fatherhood, motherhood, piety,
the Bible and even the human significance of dietary restrictions," Temkin
said. "Kass’ views on these topics are often controversial. But however
much one may disagree with Kass, few social thinkers writing today are more
thoughtful and serious about the issues they address."

Kass has published numerous scientific articles and many articles on ethical
issues in publications such as Science, New Republic, the Public Interest, Commentary
and others.

His books include "The Hungry Soul: Eating and the Perfecting of Our Nature,"
(The Free Press, 1994) and "Toward a More Natural Science: Biology and
Human Affairs," (The Free Press, 1985).

George Will, Newsweek columnist, described Kass as "our society’s most
skillful navigator in the area of biomedical ethics."

The lecture series is sponsored by the president, the provost, the dean of
the School of Humanities and the Department of Philosophy and supported by the
Office of the President and Office of the Provost. For more information about
the lecture series contact the Department of Philosophy at (713) 527-4994.