FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

FEBRUARY 20, 2003

Katherine Hawley

WOOSTER, Ohio - Katherine Hawley, Gillespie Visiting Professor of Philosophy at The College of Wooster, will present "Cloning, Immortality, and the Self" at a free public lecture on Wednesday, Feb. 26, at 7:30 p.m. in Room 205 of Scovel Hall (944 College Mall).

Hawley will go beyond the ethical debate on human cloning and focus on some of the deep questions about how it might affect one's identity and uniqueness. "Suppose you were cloned, and your clone outlived you," says Hawley. "Would this be a kind of life after death? What if your clone decided to kill you off early? Would it be murder or suicide?

"Some of those who want to produce cloned children see cloning as a first step to eternal life," adds Hawley. "In fact, cultists foresee a future in which you will be able to transfer your memory and character into your clone. If this happens, they say, you will eventually achieve immortality, passing from body to body down the generations, just as computer programs pass from machine to machine."

In her address, Hawley will argue that this vision of immortality through cloning is mistaken. She will make the case that this point of view rests on confused ideas of what human identity really is, and of what we hope for when we hope for our own survival.

Hawley, professor of philosophy at St. Andrews University in Scotland, specializes in the study of metaphysics, epistemology, and the philosophy of science. She is the author of How Things Persist (Oxford University Press, 2001) and deputy editor of The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, where she is primarily responsible for book reviews. Currently, she is working on questions about the relationship between philosophy and science. She teaches critical thinking, formal logic, and early modern philosophy, as well as philosophy of science, philosophy of physics, epistemology, and metaphysics.

The Gillespie Visiting Professorship was endowed in 1958 by Mabel Lindsay Gillespie of Pittsburgh in memory of her parents, Anna Randolph Darlington Gillespie and David Lindsay Gillespie. This endowment brings to Wooster a professor from outside the United States to take the place of a member of the faculty who is on research or sabbatical leave. In recognition of the College's long association with Scotland, the professorship is normally held by a member of one of the Scottish universities.

For more information about the lecture, call 330-263-2494 or visit www.wooster.edu.