Professor Robert Edwards, the creator of IVF, was featured recently in a newspaper profile. The results demonstrate—as we have discussed here previously about James Watson—that being a brilliant scientist does not necessarily translate into the ability to engage in sound moral reasoning. IVF has a mixed record, in my view—particularly how it has led directly to some of the greatest bioethical controversies of our day. But that issue aside, this quote from Edwards seems ridiculous to me:
“I am a humanist. A humanist believes nobody knows the truth. I don’t criticise. We will look after people, and I look after animals. I became vegetarian ten years ago because I don’t want to eat animals.”
If it has a face, don’t eat it is fine. But to to believe that nobody knows the truth is to say that the truth cannot be known. To say I don’t criticize is to say that I am hopelessly relativistic.
Anyway, I’m not buying. What Edwards really means, I suspect, is that there are certain views, e.g., those on the radical edge, that he won’t criticize. I would bet a bunch, however, that his attitude toward those holding and standing up for traditional values or morality would not receive such a benign shrug of the humanist shoulder.
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