At the Fall Convocation ceremony at Place des Arts on October 14, McGill University awarded its highest academic honour to Professor Emerita Bartha Maria Knoppers, recognizing a career that bridged literature, law and bioethics to shape international policy on genomic science and medical research.
Knoppers received the McGill Medal for Exceptional Academic Achievement, an honour recognizing the outstanding contributions of retired members of McGill University’s academic staff who are “uniquely deserving in light of their exceptional contributions to their discipline, to the University and to society at large.”
“Today’s complexities and possibilities in medicine make ethical judgment vastly more challenging. That is why McGill, Canada and the world are so lucky to have people like Bartha Maria Knoppers to guide the way,” said Lesley Fellows, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in presenting the McGill Medal.
“It is impossible to overestimate the importance of Professor Knoppers’s landmark work in bioethics, the place where law and medicine meet – and where scientific progress is challenged to prove its unquestionable benefit to us all.”
A legal scholar, ethicist and founder of McGill’s Centre of Genomics and Policy, Knoppers is known worldwide for establishing ethical frameworks for genetic research, helping to shape standards for major initiatives such as the Human Genome Project and UNESCO’s Declaration on the Human Genome and Human Rights, while also serving on the World Health Organization’s scientific advisory group and Canada’s Royal Commission on Reproductive Technologies.
From poetry to policy
Knoppers’s path to becoming one of the world’s leading voices in bioethics was anything but traditional. She began her academic career in literature, studying surrealist poetry as a tool of post-colonial expression.
“Poetry sets you free,” she said. “It teaches you how to express the inexpressible, and that shaped how I approach complex ethical questions that don’t have clear answers.”
She says poetry helped her become comfortable with ambiguity, nuance and multiple interpretations – all essential when navigating the moral grey zones of law, medicine and science.
A shift in her doctoral plans led her to pursue law, driven by a desire to make a more tangible social impact. A moot court assignment involving a criminal suspect who refused to have a bullet surgically removed – because it could incriminate him – sparked her interest in medical law.
“It raised huge questions about bodily integrity, consent and self-incrimination,” she said. “I thought, this is fascinating.”
The power of representative data
Knoppers earned law degrees from McGill and the Sorbonne, and a diploma in legal studies from Cambridge. She joined the Faculty of Law at Université de Montréal in 1985 and moved to McGill in 2009 as a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Law and Medicine.
At McGill, she founded the Centre of Genomics and Policy, a hub grounded in three universal human rights: the right to science, the right to health and the right to non-discrimination.
For Knoppers, large-scale, diverse data is essential if we want to ensure that all people benefit from the advances of science.
“We can’t develop effective treatments without data that reflects our population’s diversity,” she said.
Knoppers also considers that Canada’s growing diversity offers insights into disease susceptibility and resistance. In a universal healthcare system, she believes precision-based care is key to sustainability.
“We can’t provide everything to everyone, but population data helps deliver targeted care by age, region or ethnicity,” she said.
Building bridges between law and science
Knoppers considers that it is vital that we embed ethics directly into the research process by working alongside scientists, clinicians and data experts.
“When I arrived here, I told the dean I didn’t want to be tucked away in a greystone labeled ‘Biomedical Ethics,’” she said. “Put me with the epidemiologists, statisticians and disease researchers. I wanted to talk to them, understand their work and, hopefully, have them be interested in what we could offer.”
This collaborative approach made McGill’s Genome Centre a natural home.
“It’s inspiring to be in the middle of it all,” she said. “Ethics shouldn’t be an ivory tower. It should be part of the discovery process.”
Ethics as a framework for trust, not a barrier to innovation
Keeping ethical guidelines current with rapidly evolving science can be daunting, said Knoppers, but the starting point is always the same: “Understand the science as deeply as you can.”
That means working closely with researchers to understand their goals and concerns. “Only then can we move forward responsibly – with accountability, collaboration and due diligence.”
Policy frameworks, she said, don’t “grow on trees.” They require time, consensus and the ability to navigate diverse cultural and legal contexts.
“The real question is: can we agree on foundational principles to guide us despite our differences?”
Ethics, she added, should inspire trust, not block innovation.
“If seen only as a policing mechanism, it loses its value. But as a framework for trust and social acceptability, it strengthens science.”
A global influence
Though officially retired, Knoppers hasn’t slowed down. She continues to serve on international commissions and to lend her voice and expertise to emerging bioethical issues. Her message to the next generation is simple: don’t be afraid of complexity.
“We live in a time of unprecedented scientific possibility,” she said. “But possibility without responsibility is never enough. The challenge, and the opportunity, is to build a future where both can thrive together.”