Science, Accountability, and Public Trust

Baronness Onora O'Neill

On September 20, 2004, Dame Onora O'Neill, the Principal of Newnham College, Cambridge, spoke on trust and science at a stakeholder event to be held at the University of San Diego. Dr. O'Neill is an internationally ethicist whose initial work centered on Kantian ethics. She has published widely on issues of trust, justice, and bioethics. In 2002, she give the Reith Lectures 2002: A Question of Trust which are available in streaming audio on the Web; previous Reith lecturers include Bertrand Russell (who delivered the first Reith lecture in 1948), Arnold Toynbee, Robert Oppenheimer, John Kenneth Galbraith, Anthony Giddens, and V.S. Ramachandran. In 2003 she gave the Annual Darwin Lecture at Cambridge University on "DNA and Ethics." She is a former member and chair of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics and the Human Genetics Advisory Commission, and chairs the Nuffield Foundation. She is a Member of the House of Lords (Baroness O'Neill of Bengarve), sits as a cross bencher and was a member of the Select Committee on Stem Cell Research. Publications:

A Question of Trust: The BBC Reith Lectures 2002 (2002)
Autonomy and Trust in Bioethics (2002)
Bounds of Justice (2000)
Towards Justice and Virtue (1996)
Constructions of Reason: Exploration of Kant's Practical Philosophy (1989)
Faces of Hunger: An Essay on Poverty, Development and Justice (1986)

Event Links

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Ethics Center Events

The Ethics Center sponsors several kinds of events, some of which are open to the public, others of which are by invitation only. To be added to our mailing list, please contact The Ethics Center.

Public Lectures

The Ethics Center sponsors public lectures, often in conjunction with other local organizations such as the SDSTC (UCSD), The Burnham Institute and the Values Institute (USD)

Stake Holder Events

The Ethics Center regularly sponsors stake-holder events, which typically involve a local group of 40-50 individuals along with a distinguished visiting leader in ethics. Past events have included Thomas Murray, President of the Hastings Center, and William Hurlbut, Professor of Medicine at Stanford and member of the President's Commission on Bioethics.

Focus Groups

In order to assess the needs of or local community and also to develop local communities of individuals who share a particular interest in ethics, science and technology (i.e., religious leaders, health care personnel), we hold periodic focus groups that are devoted to the conjunction of ethics, science, and technology with a particular area of life.