Departmental Information and Links

UMC Bioethics/Biotechnology & Society Program

About the Campus Program

The Biotechnology & Society Program is an interdisciplinary program initiated in 2000 at the University of Missouri-Columbia to study the ethical, legal, social and economic issues raised by modern genomics and biotechnology. The creation of the Biotechnology & Society Program reflects the University’s belief that recent advances in the life sciences must be accompanied by a thoughtful, independent examination of their social implications. It also reflects our belief that a genuinely interdisciplinary exploration of these issues will improve the understanding of both the scientists who shape the direction of the research and those who critique their work. This initiative is especially appropriate here in Columbia, where we sit on the proposed "Life Sciences Corridor" connecting Kansas City and St. Louis and where our scientists do state-of-the-art biotechnology research every day..

Over the several years, with the help of Mission Enhancement funds provided by the legislature, we will hire 6 new faculty to study these issues. They will work in the fields of philosophy, economics, law, journalism and public policy. These new faculty will complement our current faculty, who work in those fields and in others, like rural sociology, political science, molecular biology, genetics and biology, and are already teaching or writing about these issues.

Our mission is to keep an open-mind, to search for the facts beneath the rhetoric, and to help citizens and policymakers identify the value choices that ultimately must be made.

About the Director

Philip Peters, Jr., is the Ruth L. Hulston Professor of Law at the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law. He teaches Genetics & the Law and the Bioethics Seminar, and he coordinates the interdisciplinary campus course called the Social and Legal Implications of Genetically-Modified Foods.

Professor Peters is an internationally known expert on reproductive technology. He was recently selected to be a Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University, where he worked on a book titled "How Safe is Safe Enough? Obligations to the Children of Genetic and Reproductive Technology." It will be published by Oxford University Press, the preeminent bioethics publisher in the world. Professor Peters is also nationally known for his expertise in medical malpractice law.

Office Address: 314 Hulston Hall - Office Phone: (573) 882-8274 - E-Mail: PetersP@missouri.edu