Star Trek and the ethics of space exploration

Who owns the moon? Is it fair to send people on a one-way trip to Mars? Can doctors safeguard medical experiments in other environments? These are just a few of the ethical questions confronting the human race as we continue to explore space.

The Emory Looks at Hollywood series examines these questions in context of the new Paramount Pictures movie "Star Trek Into Darkness," the latest in the long-running Star Trek story. Watch the video above as Paul Root Wolpe, Director of the Center for Ethics at Emory and the first Senior Bioethicist for NASA, discusses the ethics of space exploration.

Related: Scientist tackles the ethics of space travel

Get a masters in bioethics

Graphic from Emory Center for Ethics

Emory's Center for Ethics has launched a masters degree program in bioethics that provides advanced, interdisciplinary study of the social and ethical challenges facing the life sciences. "The program is so innovative and exciting, I wish I could take it myself," says Paul Root Wolpe, director of the center. Faculty in the program come from medicine, nursing, public health, law, theology, business, the life sciences, philosophy, religion, sociology and psychology.