The aim of a University education, in the view of John Henry, Cardinal Newman in the mid-19th century, is not primarily to fit students for this or that particular profession, but to develop their minds, to be able to exercise judgment, engage fruitfully in debate and conversation, to interpret what is happening in society and to bring insights to bear on these events.
My working life has been in biological sciences and I've always been grateful for my good fortune in seeing the complexity, beauty and coordination of the processes in the living cells of the body. In my case it invigorated a belief that there must be a higher influence that is ultimately responsible for this — and such a belief remains entirely consistent with evolution as proposed by Charles Darwin.
Another view often expressed is that science understands this complexity more and more, and this process of revelation really means that science can explain everything. Currently that is a confrontational topic between religion and science, but there is really no basis for such confrontation. It is made popular by a number of most strident publicists, who despite the fact that they believe there is no God, spend an inordinate time and effort in discussing him.
Scientific research poses ethical questions that need to be considered when embarking upon experiments. For example, the question of experimentation on human embryos for the purpose of making embryonic stem cells. For the most part, such ethical questions require little more than sound logic and common sense in resolving them, but in an increasingly secular society it has become the fashion to blame religion for any constraints put upon the advances that could be made in science.
I believed it was not right to manufacture human embryos for research, but I decided to use scientific arguments against this. In fact that made the task easier. It was truly astonishing to see how regularly very bad science was presented publicly by scientists who wanted to do such work.
The result was that a great deal of bad science won much positive publicity. What is needed to combat that is more people in the community who are capable of thinking things through and reaching their own conclusions.
By no means should one simply accept as truth the science presented through the lay press. Work to develop your own coordinated views. A fundamental question that applies across the board to ethical questions in science is: in a world where we are capable of doing everything, should we do everything we can do? I think not.
In this area of embryonic stem cell research, eventually a wonderful outcome was achieved in the last three to five years, led by the work of a young Japanese scientist, who is actually an orthopaedic surgeon. What Shinya Yamanaka did was genuinely revolutionary. Through trial and error he arrived at a simple set of genes to add to normal body cells to make them behave like embryonic stem cells — that is, they were capable of being changed to any cell in the body. In doing so he overcame the ethical problems associated with the use of ES cells, and so has changed the climate around such work irreversibly.
He had embarked upon this work because he felt that it was not right to use embryos for research, and set about seeking an alternative in a positive way.
There are very many areas of our future development that will be influenced by scientific advances. Science will produce new industries and jobs, and will enable us to tackle seemingly intractable social and environmental problems. With these will certainly come ethical questions, for which educated people need to be prepared.
The community needs to be much more capable of questioning and understanding science — and with questioning comes understanding. It's up to the community to press for this with its questioning, and educated people in professions such as teaching and nursing are people that we will be relying on to lead the way.
Generally speaking, the amount of knowledge we acquire is sufficient: what is more important is to make our own synthesis of that knowledge. Don't leave science to the scientists. Don't have them tell you what is good for you. Make them accountable, be constructive critics and analysts by collecting the necessary facts, identifying errors in logic, and looking for the truth.
Medical scientist Professor T. J. Martin AO FRS was awarded an honorary doctorate by The
Australian Catholic University.
The above is an extract from his address to graduates at the Ballarat campus.