Green spaces, assisted dying and artificial intelligence

A microprogram in bioethics and environmental ethics is being created at Université Laval. A new formation that casts a wide net.

Lea Carrier
The Press

Is access to green spaces in the city a right? How far will we go to improve human capabilities?

Our technological advances raise complex questions. A new microprogram offered at Université Laval is trying to answer them.

“We are in a phase of very strong intellectual boiling and the search for benchmarks”, remarks Marie-Hélène Parizeau, professor at the Faculty of Philosophy.

Hence the interest in setting up this unprecedented training with Cory-Andrew Labrecque, professor and vice-dean of the faculty of theology and religious sciences.

The idea germinated during the pandemic. Is access to greenery in the city a right? A health condition? Locked up at home for months, the question suddenly became central.

“We said to ourselves that we already had to find new ways for the post-pandemic period”, explains M^me Paris to The Press.

Two years later, a 15-credit microprogram was released.

Put simply, bioethics is the study of ethical problems caused by technological innovations in medicine and biology, explains Ms.^me Parizeau.

The discipline was born at the turn of the 1970s among philosophers and theologians (who study religion).

Rare partnership

There are already bioethics programs in Quebec. The University of Montreal, for example, offers a master’s degree in bioethics. However, this multidisciplinary micro-program differs from it for two reasons.

The first: the training includes a whole section on environmental ethics.

These concerns are also becoming more and more of a priority among students.

The microprogram is also the result of a — rare — partnership between the Faculty of Philosophy and the Faculty of Theology and Religious Sciences. “We wanted to reconnect with the origins of the discipline,” explains Mr. Labrecque.

The advantage? “The major questions of bioethics were already posed in the major disciplines of philosophy and theology,” replies the professor.

Answers in ancient literature

Take the example of death. It has always haunted humans. What is our relationship to it now that we can thwart it with increasingly effective treatments? Or provoke it to alleviate suffering?

Possible answers can be found in ancient literature, believes Mr. Labrecque. The art of dying well is a collection of Christian texts that addressed these questions more than… 600 years ago!

Medical assistance in dying, artificial intelligence, proportionality of care: “these are old questions, but in new contexts. Philosophy and theology have resources, traditions, ways of thinking,” adds Marie-Hélène Parizeau.

Sometimes they have converging points of view. Other times they diverge. This is the case on the issue of abortion.

“These are dialogues that echo our societies. Look at what is happening in the United States. It’s incredible. This means that a social consensus can be unraveled and that forces within can overturn things that we thought were acquired, ”remarks Ms.^me Parizeau.

“This is a good example where, precisely, we have things to discuss together to understand what is happening,” she adds.

Training open to all

The goal of the microprogram, therefore, is to create a formation that is “deeper” for students of philosophy and theology — but not only.

Ethics courses are already offered to students in the Faculty of Medicine and the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Université Laval.

“There are always a few who want to go further,” says Marie-Hélène Parizeau.

The two professors, who both studied science before changing course, insist: this training can only be beneficial for these students.

“When I was a medical student, that’s what I wanted: courses in philosophy and courses in theology, because it’s another vocabulary, another way of seeing the world. And there is a richness in it, ”says Mr. Labrecque.