S Matthew Liao

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

The right of children to be loved

The role of animal models in evaluating reasonable safety and efficacy for human trials of cell-based interventions for neurologic conditions

Regenberg, A., Mathews, D. J., Blass, D. M., Bok, H., Coyle, J. T., Duggan, P., Faden, R., Finkel, J., Gearhart, J. D., Hillis, A., Hoke, A., Johnson, R., Johnston, M., Kahn, J., Kerr, D., King, P., Kurtzberg, J., Liao, S. M., McDonald, J. W., … Traystman, R. J. (n.d.).

Publication year

2009

Journal title

Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism

Volume

29

Issue

1

Page(s)

1-9

10.1038/jcbfm.2008.98

Abstract

Abstract

Progress in regenerative medicine seems likely to produce new treatments for neurologic conditions that use human cells as therapeutic agents; at least one trial for such an intervention is already under way. The development of cell-based interventions for neurologic conditions (CBI-NCs) will likely include preclinical studies using animals as models for humans with conditions of interest. This paper explores predictive validity challenges and the proper role for animal models in developing CBI-NCs. In spite of limitations, animal models are and will remain an essential tool for gathering data in advance of first-in-human clinical trials. The goal of this paper is to provide a realistic lens for viewing the role of animal models in the context of CBI-NCs and to provide recommendations for moving forward through this challenging terrain.

Unintended changes in cognition, mood, and behavior arising from cell-based interventions for neurological conditions: Ethical challenges

A defense of intuitions

Cell-based interventions for neurologic conditions: Ethical challenges for early human trials

Mathews, D. J., Sugarman, J., Bok, H., Blass, D. M., Coyle, J. T., Duggan, P., Finkel, J., Greely, H. T., Hillis, A., Hoke, A., Johnson, R., Johnston, M., Kahn, J., Kerr, D., Kurtzberg, J., Liao, S. M., McDonald, J. W., McKhann, G., Nelson, K. B., … Faden, R. (n.d.).

Publication year

2008

Journal title

Neurology

Volume

71

Issue

4

Page(s)

288-293

10.1212/01.wnl.0000316436.13659.80

Abstract

Abstract

Background: Attempts to translate basic stem cell research into treatments for neurologic diseases and injury are well under way. With a clinical trial for one such treatment approved and in progress in the United States, and additional proposals under review, we must begin to address the ethical issues raised by such early forays into human clinical trials for cell-based interventions for neurologic conditions. Methods: An interdisciplinary working group composed of experts in neuroscience, cell biology, bioethics, law, and transplantation, along with leading disease researchers, was convened twice over 2 years to identify and deliberate on the scientific and ethical issues raised by the transition from preclinical to clinical research of cell-based interventions for neurologic conditions. Results: While the relevant ethical issues are in many respects standard challenges of human subjects research, they are heightened in complexity by the novelty of the science, the focus on the CNS, and the political climate in which the science is proceeding. Conclusions: Distinctive challenges confronting US scientists, administrators, institutional review boards, stem cell research oversight committees, and others who will need to make decisions about work involving stem cells and their derivatives and evaluate the ethics of early human trials include evaluating the risks, safety, and benefits of these trials, determining and evaluating cell line provenance, and determining inclusion criteria, informed consent, and the ethics of conducting early human trials in the public spotlight. Further study and deliberation by stakeholders is required to move toward professional and institutional policies and practices governing this research.

Issues in the pharmacological induction of emotions

Selecting Children: The Ethics of Reproductive Genetic Engineering

Special issue: the ethics of enhancement

The Normativity of Memory Modification

Who Is Afraid of Numbers?

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

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

Time-relative interests and abortion

The Embryo Rescue Case

The idea of a duty to love

The organism view defended

The right of children to be loved

Rescuing human embryonic stem cell research: The blastocyst transfer method

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

Liao, S. M. (n.d.). In American Journal of Bioethics (1–).

Publication year

2005

Volume

5

Issue

6

Page(s)

W10-W13

10.1080/15265160500388616

The ethics of using genetic engineering for sex selection