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S Matthew Liao

S. Matthew Liao

S. Matthew Liao

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Director of the Center for Bioethics

Arthur Zitrin Professor of Bioethics

Professional overview

Dr. Matthew Liao uses the tools of philosophy to study and examine the ramifications of novel biomedical innovations.

A speaker at TEDxCERN, Dr. Liao discussed whether it is ethical for someone to erase certain aspects of their memories and how doing so might affect that individual's identity. He has also given a TED talk in New York and been featured in the New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and other numerous media outlets.

The author and editor of four books, Dr. Liao provides the academic community with a collection of human rights essays. In The Right to be Loved, he explores the philosophical foundations underpinning children's right to be loved, and proposes that we reconceptualize our policies concerning adoptions so that individuals who are not romantically linked can co-adopt a child together.

Dr. Liao provides students with an education grounded in a broad conception of bioethics encompassing both medical and environmental ethics. He offers students the opportunity to explore the intersection of human rights practice with central domains of public health and regularly teaches normative theory and neuroethics. His courses address how the rightness or wrongness of an act is determined and ethical issues arising out of new medical technologies such as embryonic stem cell research, cloning, artificial reproduction, and genetic engineering; ethical issues raised by the development and use of neuroscientific technologies such as the ethics of erasing traumatic memories; the ethics of mood and cognitive enhancements; and moral and legal implications of "mind-reading" technologies for brain privacy.

To learn more about Dr. Liao and his work, visit his website and blog.

Education

AB, Politics (Magna Cum Laude), Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
DPhil, Philosophy, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

Honors and awards

Outstanding Academic Title, The Right to Be Loved, Choice Review (2016)
TEDx Speaker at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland (2015)
TEDx Speaker, New York, NY (2013)
Humanities Grant Initiative, NYU (2011)
Big Think Delphi Fellow (2011)

Areas of research and study

Bioethics
Epistemology
Metaphysics
Moral Psychology

Publications

Publications

Who Is Afraid of Numbers?

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Ethical and policy issues relating to progenitor-cell-based strategies for prevention of atherosclerosis

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Neuroethical concerns about moderating traumatic memories

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The Ashley treatment : Best interests, convenience, and parental decision-making

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Time-relative interests and abortion

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The Embryo Rescue Case

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The idea of a duty to love

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The organism view defended

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The right of children to be loved

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Are 'ex ante' enhancements always permissible?

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Rescuing human embryonic stem cell research : The blastocyst transfer method

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Response to commentators on "Rescuing human embryonic stem cell research : The blastocyst transfer method" [1]

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The ethics of using genetic engineering for sex selection

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Eva Feder Kittay, Love's Labor

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Cairo Charter Global Consensus on Emerging Ethical Frontiers in Transplantation: Detailed Recommendations from Working Group 1: Ethical Framework for Xenotransplantation and Bioengineered Organs

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Ethical Framework for Clinical Xenotransplantation and Bioengineered Organs:  A Stakeholder-Centered Analysis

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Understanding Privacy: The Personal Agential Realm Theory and Its Implications

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Kids Deserve Privacy Online. They’re Not Getting It.

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Contact

matthew.liao@nyu.edu 708 Broadway New York, NY, 10003