Dr Silvia Camporesi
I am a bioethicist with an interdisciplinary training in biotechnology and philosophy of medicine. I write on the ethics of emerging biotechnologies, in particular reproductive ethics, and on topics from ethics and law in medicine and sport. I am based at King's College London where I am Director of the MSc in Bioethics & Society. I am one of the three founding section editors of the new Reproduction, Technology and Society section of RBMO journal (July 2020).
I was trained in biotechnology in Italy and Germany. I started a career in biotechnology and pursued a PhD in Life Sciences: Foundations and Ethics and the European School of Molecular Medicine at the University of Milan, then trained in philosophy of medicine and applied ethics at King's College London.
I am based at King's College London, where I direct the MSc in Bioethics & Society.
Supervisors: Professor John Harris, University of Manchester, Professor Dorothy Porter, University of California, San Francisco, and Dr Matteo Mameli, King's College London
I was trained in biotechnology in Italy and Germany. I started a career in biotechnology and pursued a PhD in Life Sciences: Foundations and Ethics and the European School of Molecular Medicine at the University of Milan, then trained in philosophy of medicine and applied ethics at King's College London.
I am based at King's College London, where I direct the MSc in Bioethics & Society.
Supervisors: Professor John Harris, University of Manchester, Professor Dorothy Porter, University of California, San Francisco, and Dr Matteo Mameli, King's College London
less
Related Authors
InterestsView All (18)
Uploads
Papers by Dr Silvia Camporesi
The recording of this talk is now available online.
When asked by David whether we should be worried about eugenics programmes today, I argued that while we often hear about the 'resurgence' of eugenics in the context of the selection of children's traits with genetic technologies, we should be careful when we draw this comparison.
The negative connotation we have of eugenics today is something that we have acquired relatively recently, in the aftermath of WWII. When the term eugenics was invented by Francis Galton in 1883, it did not have a negative connotation; quite on the contrary, it was considered a duty of society to pursue the selection of "good genes", both with negative measures (such as sterilisation laws) and with positive measures (such as support for young families).
We now think, in the Western world at least, that people have a right to 'reproductive freedom' which includes when and with whom to reproduce, but this was not the case with classical eugenics when reproductive decisions were considered a legitimate sphere of intervention of the state.
I have also argued that the use of eugenics as a word mobilises anxieties in the public, and can mask real ethical issues that we have with selection, which are different from those of the past.
"
Dunn (University of Oxford), and Alan Cribb (King’s College
London), Empirical Bioethics is the first book systematically
tackling the epistemological questions raised by the
use of empirical data to answer normative questions in
bioethics.
While it is difficult to define empirical bioethics, if
there is one thing on which we can all agree, and on which
this book is based, it is that empirical bioethics must take
seriously both normative and empirical epistemologies.
This is what the editors clearly state in the introduction to
the first part of the book. Hence their choice of a volume
that offers examples of “how to think through the various
challenges that empirical bioethics research presents.”
That is why this volume does not aim to be a textbook. It
aims instead to be a “source book” (using the words of the
editors), that is, a book to which those of us interested in
doing empirical ethics work can turn to look at how other
researchers have attempted to answer key epistemological
challenges in this field.
University-based philosopher Catherine Mills, is a breath
of fresh air in the bioethics discourse on reproduction and
the impact that technologies have on shaping new ways of
life.
This book is a contribution to the bioethics literature
that, while discussing the ethical contours of new ways of
creating life through technologies, also discusses and creates
new spaces for bioethics. Mills takes readers beyond
the usual understanding of the ethical issues inherent in
reproduction, usually understood within the reproductive
freedom framework, by bringing in phenomenological
and feminist perspectives on embodiment, a discussion of
the relationality element intrinsic in ethical concepts such
as autonomy, and Foucault’s concept of biopolitics, with a
discussion of the values intrinsic in the emergence and
implementation of new biomedical technologies for the
governance of life.
Duncan Wilson is a historian of medicine based at the Centre for the History of Science, Technology and Medicine (CHSTM) at Manchester University. His book is the first of its kind addressing the history of the emergence of bioethics in the United Kingdom through a wide range of sources, from archives and interviews, to bulletins and academic papers.
As Wilson puts it, the “making” of bioethics is “an active and ongoing process that owes as much to agency as to broader political changes” .
As demonstrated by sociologist David Reubi [also at SSHM], specific factors shape what counts as “bioethics” in different times and places (Reubi 2010, cited in Wilson 2013, 7–8). The Making of British Bioethics shares Reubi’s view and adopts an “actor-centred outlook” that investigates the interplay between how specific actors have emerged as bioethicists while at the same time states (the United Kingdom in this case) have created a demand for bioethics (Jasanoff 2005, referenced by Wilson 2014, 11). Adopting this method, Wilson distances himself from other histories of bioethics that focus on topics (e.g., Ferber 2013) or on social factors (Fox and Swazey 2008)."
The Ethics of the New Eugenics, edited by Calum MacKellar and Christopher Bechtel (2014),
An introductory “Note on the Text” states: “The research on which this book is based was commissioned by the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics. It is the result of the collective work of many individuals at the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics. Initial drafting and subsequent editing was the work of Calum MacKellar and Christopher Bechtel, as agreed to by the Ethics Committee of the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics. They were appointed principal editors by the Council.”
is a useful introductory reference book for those interested in the use of genetic technologies to improve the human species. MacKellar is the director of research for the Scottish Council on Human Bioethics (SCHB) and a visiting professor of bioethics at St. Mary’s University College London, and Bechtel is a research fellow at the SCHB. The Scottish Council on Bioethics commissioned and supported research for this volume.
Routledge, 2010, Pp. 230. £ 32.99 (pb). ISBN: 978-0-415-47606-5
Simona Giordano’s book, ‘Exercise and Eating Disorder: an ethical and legal analysis’
does what it says in the title: it provides a comprehensive, accessible and accurate
account from an ethical and legal point of view of how to coach and assist people who
are ‘eating disordered exercisers’, or, more specifically, individuals who exercise and are
affected by anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa. The starting point of her analysis is
the increasing prevalence of individuals who are affected by eating disorders and who
exercise in gym or another fitness setting, and the complete absence of guidelines on
how to coach and assist them. What are the risks and benefits of exercise for people
who have or may have eating disorders? At what level can exercise be beneficial to
people with eating disorders? Do coaches/trainers have a moral duty to prohibit people
with eating disorders from training?
Written by two of the world's leading authorities on the ethics of biotechnology in sport, the book addresses the philosophical implications of the latest scientific developments and technological data. Distinguishing fact from popular myth and science fiction, it covers key topics such as the genetic basis of sport performance and the role of genetic testing in talent identification and development. Its ten chapters discuss current debates surrounding issues such as the shifting relationship between genetics, sports medicine and sports science, gene enhancement, gene transfer technology, doping and disability sport.
The first book to be published on this important subject in ten years, this is fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in the ethics of sport, bioethics or sport performance.