Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Links

• Register: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/whats-in-a-name-names-confusing-decision-making-in-reproductive-genetics-registration-137700155873

University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics Seminar Series 2020-21

Speaker:

Jeff Nisker, Professor, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Scientist, Children’s Health Research Institute, Western University

About this Seminar:

Although Juliet’s claim, ‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet’, may apply to family names, ‘that which we call’ embryos and procedures in reproductive genetics often smell sweet because the names were created to perfume not-so-sweet-smelling practices. Reproductive-genetic scientists and clinicians, including myself, have used perfumed names to make our research smell sweet for research ethics boards, research grant funders, government regulators, hospital administrators and the general public. The sweet-smelling names in reproductive genetics explored here include ‘pre-embryo’, preimplantation genetic ‘diagnosis’, ‘normal’ embryo, ‘suitable’ embryo, ‘healthy’ embryo, preimplantation genetic ‘testing’, ‘non-invasive prenatal testing’, ‘donation’, and most recently ‘mitochondrial replacement therapy’, a sweet-smelling name for germline nuclear transfer prohibited in legislation against reproductive cloning in most countries.

In order for informed choices to occur for people who come to clinicians for information regarding reproductive genetics, and for transparency of scrutiny by research ethics boards, governmental regulators and the general public, it is essential that we consider the real meaning of sweet-smelling names in reproductive genetics.

Additional Details:

This event is free and is open to the general public.

The direct link to the seminar will be sent out to registered participants 2 hours before the event. All of the JCB Bioethics Seminars are now being live streamed to our YouTube channel. If you don’t receive the link 2 hours before the event, please head over there and click on the live stream. Subscribe to our channel to receive notices of live events.

Questions?

Please email Laurie Bulchak, laurie.bulchak@utoronto.ca.