Academy of Ideas
Episodes
Friday May 25, 2018
#BattleFest2017: The international abortion wars
Friday May 25, 2018
Friday May 25, 2018
On the fiftieth anniversary of the 1967 Abortion Act, a panel of pro-choice campaigners from around the world discussed what is at stake in the battle for abortion rights. In many countries, the trend towards extending abortion rights seems to have been reversed. What does it mean to argue for a woman’s right to choose today? Is it right to think of abortion as ‘just like any other medical procedure’, or do wider moral issues arise? Is opposition to abortion rights the same the world over? Is such opposition essentially religious or based on a more universal moral intuition?
SPEAKERS
ANN FUREDI chief executive, British Pregnancy Advisory Service; author, "The Moral Case for Abortion"
KINGA JELINSKA executive director, Women Help Women
JON O’BRIEN president, Catholics for Choice
AILBHE SMYTH chair, Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment, Ireland
Friday May 18, 2018
#BattleFest2017: Are science and medicine threatened by borders?
Friday May 18, 2018
Friday May 18, 2018
Scientists and doctors have emerged as among the most vociferous critics of Brexit and Trump. The March for Science expressed the concerns of many researchers and clinicians on both sides of the Atlantic about the future of funding and about the movement of researchers and students across national borders. Many were also alarmed at the apparent lack of respect for expertise and evidence in public policy. But whose responsibility should it be to fund scientific research? How can science and medicine best be defended and pursued, in an uncertain world of shifting borders?
SPEAKERS
DR ELIOT FORSTER CEO, Immunocore; chairman, MedCity
DR JOE KAPLINSKY assistant professor, DTU Nanotech; coauthor, Energise! a future for energy innovation
DR FIONA MCEWEN postdoctoral researcher, Queen Mary University of London
RAFAEL YÁÑEZ-MUÑOZ professor of advanced therapy, Royal Holloway University of London