Brewster & Schaller: Where Law & Science Intersect

DANBURY — The “brave new world” predicted by Aldous Huxley in his 1932 work of science fiction is upon us.

As scientific advances have led us into the 21st Century, US law has lagged. At the intersection of rapidly advancing science and technology lie questions of ethics and morality in areas such as genetics, reproductive and preventative medicine, and government surveillance. Who has the power to decide?

These issues and more will be the focus of “Life Science And The Law: Making Sense of a Brave New World” at 7 pm on Wednesday, March 1, in Room 125 of Western CT State University Science Building. Connecticut Appellate Judge Barry R. Schaller and the renowned journalist Todd Brewster will discuss the ramifications of technology when it outpaces the law. The program will be free and the public is invited.

Mr Brewster said the time has come to confront this controversial topic.

“During the past year we have been witness to two Supreme Court nomination battles in which the candidates were grilled about their attitudes towards abortion, gender discrimination, the growing power of the executive branch and what turned out to be rather minor ethical lapses or mistakes of personal judgment,” he said. “Sadly, it seems that the senators missed the boat. While the lawmakers were focusing on past battles, they were forsaking an opportunity to investigate how the nominees might side in new ones — issues in which science is challenging some of our most basic assumptions about life, property, privacy, equality and free expression. There are no easy answers to the questions posed by these developments and they defy the old liberal-conservative divide.”

Judge Schaller is one of the few legal figures to have thought long and hard about all of this, Mr Brewster said.

A Connecticut trial judge since 1974, Mr Schaller was appointed to the Appellate Court in 1992.

“One of the most significant questions we face — and it comes across a wide spectrum of scientific developments, including pharmaceutical testing and right-to-die laws — is who gets to decide these thorny issues, some of which are constitutional and some of which are outside the Constitution but are nonetheless serious political and legal conundrums?” Mr Schaller said.

“Must we leave them to the individual to decide according to his or her conscience, or does the state have a legitimate interest, too?” he continued. “If the government is to be involved, then which branch of it? The courts? The legislature? The executive? And should panels of ethicists have their say as well?”

WCSU’s Science Building is on the university’s midtown campus, at the intersection of Osborne Street and Dr James Roach Avenue.

For more information, call the Office of University Relations at 837-8486.