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Ian Kerridge

Ian Kerridge recently joined Alan Saunders at the ABC Philosopher's Zone to discuss the ethics of Kevin Rudd's heart. Inserting a cow valve into Kevin Rudd's heart is not a new medical technique but is it part of a general move towards xenotransplantation. Xenotransplantation is when you take living cells, tissues and organs from one species and transplant them into another. Human xenotransplantation offers a potential treatment for end-stage organ failure, but it also raises many novel medical, legal and ethical issues.

The program looks at the moral issues arising out of what happened and the ethics of xenotransplantation. Most of us are happy to admit bits of cattle or pig into our bodies, but we normally do it with a knife and fork. Are things different, ethically speaking, if it's done surgically?

The full program and a transcript are available online at here at the Philosopher's Zone website.

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VELiM runs a brown-bag series called Conversation in the Office. Conversation is an informal meeting that encourages Velimers to discuss ideas, issues, and research of interest. It can be used as a way to introduce others to one's research, to workshop one's methods or analysis, to introduce new colleagues, or to communally chew through a particular idea one has been musing about.

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