Conveniently enough, the European Association of Centres for Medical Ethics (EACME) has their international conference in Leuven this weekend ... thrilling sessions such as "On theological anthropology and biological life limits" and "Enhancement, cosmetic pyschopharmacology and identity." Most sessions seem to be struggling with developing a sort of "ethical empiricism" despite not really having a firm grasp of measurement methodological issues. A popular framework seems to be a notion of pragmatic hermeneutics, which while making the entire process more iterative, risks falling victim to the critiques of moral relativism. -- just to prove that there is actual thought going on in between the festivities here.

An amusing sidenote is that the conference is being held at the Begignhof campus of KU Leuven, a UNESCO world heritage site that used to be pestilence houses and is now used for special events and student housing ... the plenary sessions are being held in a church built in 1305 ... it's nice to finally be at a school not fanatically engaged in building construction.