Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2016 - 11:10 am - 12:25 pm
Stem Cells:  Immoral or the Key to Immortality?
University Center, Conference Room A

The first Conference on Justice and Social Concerns offers a place for dialogue on the broad field of bioethics, which includes stem cell research, genetically modified organisms, animal ethics, socioeconomic concerns, healthcare accessibility and climate change. Panel sessions with experts from these fields will invite participants to consider the facts and moral obligations of the topics, and to reflect on how the field of bioethics affects our global community and the common good.

In Laudato Si, the 2015 encyclical on “Care for Our Common Home,” Pope Francis offers us the following as both encouragement and a call to action: “I urgently appeal, then, for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet. We need a conversation which includes everyone, since the environmental challenge we are undergoing, and its human roots, concern and affect us all.” Additionally, in his address to the Science and Life Association, Pope Francis reminds us that Christ is our light that illuminates the path for science, so that science is performed for the service of the world and not for the service of science itself.


More about the Conference on Justice and Social Concerns

The annual Conference provides the St. Mary’s University campus community with the opportunity to engage with issues of social justice, faith, and personal and communal responsibility for the common good. The Conference follows the direction set out from the Second Vatican Council to read, interpret and respond to the signs of the times (Gaudium et Spes, 4). The two-day event will be hosted each year by one of the University’s schools and will bring together experts from both academic and practical realms to lead the campus in dialogue around issues challenging our community locally and globally. The Conference will always include a keynote lecture supported by the Lin Great Speakers Series endowment.

Planned by a committee of students, faculty and staff, the conference is meant to invoke dialogue and even debate, recognizing the value of critical thinking and healthy tension. It provides an opportunity for all to encounter new perspectives and adopt methods for thoughtful critique and questioning. The value of a Catholic, liberal arts education is to learn to engage, to think critically and creatively, to have healthy dialogue, and to do so from a place of compassion and respect, rooted in love for one another and a desire to be agents of positive change in our world.