7 BILLION AND YOU
A David and Cecilia Ting Endowment Fund Lecture Series
Ethics and the Seven Billion
Thursday, February 21, 2013, 7:00 pm,
Room 1400, SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings
Presented by Dr. Christine Overall, Professor of Philosophy and
Queen’s University Research Chair, Queen’s University,
Kingston, Ontario
Abstract:
What major ethical issues must we confront?
Living among seven billion human beings generates significant ethical questions for all of us.
We need to think about our procreative responsibilities and rights, and our duties to the other
living beings on the planet. Do we have individual responsibilities to limit our reproduction?
Does society have the right to place legal or social barriers to procreation by its citizens? What
is the ethical significance of increases in human longevity?
Bio-Sketch: Christine Overall is a Professor in the Queen’s University Department of Philosophy and holds a
University Research Chair. She is cross-appointed to the Department of Gender Studies. From 1997 to 2005 she
served as Associate Dean in the Queen’s Faculty of Arts and Science. In 1996 Dr. Overall was the winner of a
provincial award for teaching excellence presented by the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations
(OCUFA). She was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1998. From 1993 to 2006 she wrote a weekly column
entitled “In Other Words” for the Kingston Whig-Standard. From 2008 to 2011 she also wrote a regular column,
“It’s All Academic,” for Canada’s national academic magazine, University Affairs. In 2008 she received the Award in
Gender Studies from the Royal Society. Dr. Overall’s has published over a hundred articles and book chapters in the
areas of bioethics, feminist philosophy, philosophy of religion, and philosophy of education. She is also the editor or
co-editor of four books and the author of six. Her book, Aging, Death, and Human Longevity: A Philosophical Inquiry,
won the Canadian Philosophical Association’s 2005 book prize and the Royal Society of Canada’s Abbyann D. Lynch
Medal in Bioethics in 2006. Her latest book is Why Have Children? The Ethical Debate, published by MIT Press in 2012.
7 Billion and You is a series of free public lectures and discussions by
leading thinkers on the patterns, processes and prognosis for a planet
housing 7 billion humans and counting. It is hosted by the Human
Evolutionary Studies Program in cooperation with Continuing Studies
in Science and Environment at Simon Fraser University. For details on
all of the lectures visit (www.sfu.ca/cstudies/science/projects.php). All
of the lectures will be recorded and available on the website. For more
information, contact: lauriew@sfu.ca
Sponsors:
Faculty of Environment, SFU
Faculty of Science, SFU
Human Evolutionary Studies Program, SFU
David and Cecilia Ting Endowment, Lifelong Learning, SFU
Reservations:
As seating is limited, reservations are recommended: www.sfu.ca/reserve
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Upcoming Lectures:
The Economics of the Seven Billion, Dr. Nicolas Eberstadt, Amerincan Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, Feb 28
Resources and the Seven Billion, Dr. William Rees, Population Ecology, UBC, Mar 7