Professor Dr Boris Grigorievich Yudin (14 August 1943–6 August 2017)
It is with a lot of sadness that we were informed of the death of Prof Boris Yudin in August 2017 after a long illness. He had been a member of the Editorial Board of this journal since 2003.
Prof Yudin was one of the first to develop the discipline of bioethics in Russia and was eventually considered as one of its foremost experts on the topic.
He was a Doctor of Philosophy, Professor, and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Prof Yudin was also a Chief Researcher at the Bioethics Department in the Institute of Philosophy of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
At the beginning of his life in Moscow, Boris Yudin was very much influence by his elder brother, Eric. In 1956, while a philosophy lecturer, Eric Yudin, publicly denounced the Russian invasion of Hungary which resulted in his employment being terminated, being thrown out of the Communist party, subsequent arrest by the KGB and imprisonment. At that time, Boris Yudin was in high school and was very much affected by these difficult events. In March 1960, however, Eric was finally released from prison after numerous petitions from his parents.
In 1969, Boris Yudin entered a PhD programme at the Institute for the History of Science and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Indeed, his devotion to system and self-organizational research led him into a field of interdisciplinary exploration. These studies resulted, in 1971, with a PhD on self-organization in the Institute of Philosophy of the USSR Academy of Sciences. However, Boris Yudin’s first publications were rejected by the ruling ideology of the time with high-ranked party official accusing him of promoting post-industrialism and convergence with capitalism.
Boris Yudin then began working, in 1977, in the Department of Methodological Problems at the Institute of History of Natural Science and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences. This resulted in the focus of his scientific interests shifting from the problems of science methodology to the sociology and ethics of science. His first article on the ethical problems of genetics was published in Philosophical Issues in 1975.
In 1985, Boris Yudin then defended his doctoral thesis and, in 1987, became the editor-in-chief of the journal Issues in the History of Science and Technology. Also in this year, he obtained the title of Professor of Moscow State University.
In 1991, he delivered the first course of lecturers on bioethics in Russia and, when a Department of Bioethics was established in the Institute of Human Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences in 1992, Prof Yudin eventually became its head.
In this role, he taught many young talented students in the field of philosophical bioethics and organized a number of international bioethical conferences and workshops.
From 2000 to 2004 he was also a member of the Council of Europe’s Bioethics Committee in Strasbourg, France. As such, he participated in the preparation of European conventions on the use of genetics in medicine, biomedical research, and organ transplantation. In addition, Prof Yudin served as the Vice-Chairman of the Russian Committee on Bioethics within the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO.
In his most recent work, Prof Yudin paid considerable attention to the ethical regulation of human ‘enhancement’, the imperative of conscientiousness in research and understanding philosophy as a foundational expertize.
His standards for academic excellence, scholastic generosity, and benevolent mentorship will echo through the work of generations of students.
Colleagues appreciated and respected Boris Yudin for his openness, benevolence, sense of humour and willingness to help. All those who ever knew him, will forever value the memory of him.
Dr Calum MacKellar