William LaFleur
William LaFleur is E. Dale Saunders Professor in Japanese Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, author of Liquid Life: Abortion and Buddhism in Japan (Princeton University Press 1992), and principal editor of Dark Medicine: Rationalizing Unethical Medical Research (Indiana University Press, 2007). Professor LaFleur was a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Fall 2006
The interview can also be downloaded as a video podcast (122.5 MB) or as an audio file (.mp3 - 53.6 MB).
Professor LaFleur focuses on the study of Japan and much of his work deals with comparisons between Japan and the United States—especially in the areas of religion, public philosophy, and social ethics. Although much of his earlier work concentrated on Buddhism and the literary arts in medieval Japan, within more recent decades it has been comparative ethics and especially bioethics that have been the focus of his writing, teaching, and public lecturing.