“Designer Children,” a lecture by Ellen M. McGee, founding director and bioethics associate of the Long Island Center for Ethics, will be held Tuesday, Sept. 25 at 4:30 p.m. in F.W. Olin Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public, with a discussion and reception immediately following.
The Center for Ethics is housed at Long Island University, Brookville, where McGee coordinates the Nassau-Suffolk Health Care Ethics Network.
She teaches medical ethics, ethics and philosophy at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and researches, lectures and publishes in the areas of end-of-life care, suicide intervention, human rights, enhancement technologies (particularly implantable brain chips) and reproductive issues.
There are now more than 30 ways to have a baby, ranging from the administration of fertility drugs to the possibility of cloning. McGee’s presentation will offer some principles for ethical analysis of assisted reproductive technologies. She also will look at examples of controversial cases and practices to examine the uncertainties and ethical debates raised.
McGee has been a member of both The Hospice Project and The Hospice and Alzheimer Project at the Hastings Center; and she was a member of the Advisory Committee on Nursing Homes: New York State Partnership to Improve End-Of-Life Care. She has appeared as an ethics consultant on network news and radio shows and has developed, organized and presented conferences on dying with dignity, enhancement technologies and health care for diverse communities. She holds Ph.D. and M.A. degrees from Fordham University and a B.A. from Marymount College, Tarrytown, N.Y.
Her visit to Union is a New York Council for the Humanities Speakers in the Humanities program.