Françoise Baylis

Education

• BA (First Class Honours), Political Science, McGill University
• MA, Philosophy, University of Western Ontario
• PhD, Philosophy (specialization in Bioethics), University of Western Ontario

Research interests

Professor Baylis’ research aims to move the limits of mainstream bioethics and develop more effective ways to understand and tackle public policy challenges in Canada and abroad. Her current focus is on (i) the ethics and regulation of technologies that aim to genetically modify human embryos and the germline, and (ii) public policy issues with the COVID-19 pandemic.

Selected publications

• Baylis, F., Darnovsky, M., Hasson, K., & Krahn, T. (2020). Human Germline and Heritable Genome Editing: The Global Policy Landscape. The CRISPR Journal 3(5): 365-377.
  
• Kofler, N., & Baylis, F. (2020). Ten reasons why immunity passports are a bad idea. Nature 581: 379-381.
  
• Baylis, F. (2019). Altered Inheritance: CRISPR and the Ethics of  Human Genome Editing. Harvard University Press.
• Baylis, F., & Dreger, A. (Eds). (2018). Bioethics in action. Cambridge University Press.
• Baylis, F. (2017). Human nuclear genome transfer (so-called mitochondrial replacement): Clearing the underbrush. Bioethics 31(1), 7-19.
• Baylis, F., & Ballantyne, A. (Eds). (2016). Clinical research involving pregnant women. Springer.
• Baylis, F. (2015). A relational view of conscience and physician conscientious action. International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 8(1), 18-36.

Awards and honours

• PROSE Award in Clinical Medicine (Professional and Scholarly Excellence) for Altered Inheritance: CRISPR and the Ethics of Human Genome Editing (2020)
• McDonald-Merrill-Ketcham Memorial Lectureship and Award for Excellence in Law and Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine (2020)
• Dalhousie University Research Professorship (2018-22)
• Lloyd Fraser Award for Outstanding Senate Leadership, Dalhousie University (2018)
• Canadian Bioethics Society Lifetime Achievement Award (2017)
• Order of Nova Scotia (2016)
• Order of Canada (2016)
• Distinguished Academic Award, Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT, 2016)
• Tier 1, Canada Research Chair in Bioethics and Philosophy (2004-2018)
• Fellow Royal Society of Canada (since 2007)
• Fellow Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (since 2007)
• Canadian Who’s Who (since 2004)
• Who’s Who in Black Canada (since 2002) 

Teaching

Over the years, Professor Baylis has provided interdisciplinary training to many postdoctoral fellows from diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including philosophy, political science, sociology, science and technology studies, law, and biology.