Centre College's Lauren Mashburn to be published in scientific journal

DANVILLE, KY (11/11/2011)(readMedia)-- A paper written by Lauren Mashburn of Madisonville, a junior at Centre College, for a biomedical ethics course was accepted for publication in a special edition of the Princeton "Journal of Bioethics."

"All of the past articles in the journal are from students at Princeton, Harvard, Yale, NYU and Georgetown, so she is in great and competitive company,"  says assistant professor of philosophy Daniel Kirchner. "Her paper is of exceptional quality, and I'm very proud that her work is being recognized by a national conference of such high stature."

The journal publication will coincide with the 2011 Princeton Bioethics Conference, which Mashburn was invited to attend.

"I am extremely excited for the opportunity to have my paper published in the Princeton "Journal of Bioethics." My paper is a challenge to [philosopher] Peter Singer's argument that parents are morally obligated to eliminate embryos based of preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) testing results when undergoing in-vitro fertilization. I provide an argument using different case studies to show that parents are not morally obligated, but the elimination in some cases is actually immoral."

Mashburn is the daughter of Michael and Teri Mashburn of Madisonville and is a graduate of Madisonville North Hopkins High School.

Centre College, founded in 1819 and chosen to host its second Vice Presidential Debate in 2012, is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges, at 42nd in the nation, and ranks 27th for best value among national liberal arts colleges. Forbes magazine ranks Centre 34th among all the nation's colleges and universities and has named Centre in the top five among all institutions of higher education in the South for three years in a row. The 2010 Open Doors Report, published by the Institute for International Education, ranks the College second in the nation for percentage of students who study abroad.