Heading to New York To Speak to the UN-UNIS and Doing Other Things About Town

Late next week I will be in New York. Big doings.

First, I have been asked to tape an interview for use on Penn and Teller’s Showtime program as the voice opposing assisted suicide.  It is my understanding that P and T are for assisted suicide, so I am to be the designated cannon fodder.  And since their particular show is very hard hitting, I am not likely to be amused.  However, that’s okay—at least that’s what I keep telling myself—since at least some of his audience will hear objections to assisted suicide they might not have considered before.  (No, I won’t meet P and T, although I saw them perform before they were big.  They sold T-shirts and P and T coffee cups in the lobby after the show.  As I recall, they were hilarious.  I am sure they will be on this show too, er, at my expense. Wait, why did I say yes, again?)

Second, First Things is throwing a book party for me to honor A Rat is a Pig is a Dog is a Boy. That should be great fun.

Finally, I will be speaking at the Great Hall of the General Assembly to the UN-UNIS, that is, the United Nations International School.  It is holding a one day seminar on bioethics for students from all around the world. I will be speaking on ” Bioethics and the Importance of Intrinsic Human Dignity.” Here’s the abstract:

In few areas of normal human life are people more vulnerable than in the medical context. Bioethics, the field that helps establish medical ethics and public health policies, should be a crucial bulwark protecting human equality and freedom.  Yet increasingly, voices within the field reject intrinsic human dignity, arguing that a “quality of life” ethic—in which some humans are valued more than others—would best promote the highest public good. Smith warns against such an approach, arguing that maintaining a bioethics centered in the equal intrinsic value of all human beings is essential to maintaining universal human rights and protecting the most weak and vulnerable among us.

You know, my usual riff.

So, starting the middle of next week, blogging may be slow, but there will be blogging.