Axel Kahn was a member of the Comité national d’éthique (National Commission on Ethics) from 1992 to 2004. Ethical awareness and reflection on moral issues have been key elements of his life and work. The positions taken by Kahn, as a biologist, on specific issues are well known – his refusal of therapeutic cloning for ethical reasons for instance.
In a discussion with philosopher Christian Godin, Kahn goes further than ever before in his thoughts on the fundaments of a Godless, non-transcendental moral that would nonetheless remain concerned with rules and norms as traditional moral systems.

Axel Kahn is a biologist and genetics specialist. He is director of the Cochin Institute, the largest of the INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale). His latest publications include: Comme deux frères (Stock, 2006) co-authored with Jean-François Kahn, and L’homme, ce roseau pensant (Nil, 2007).

Christian Godin is a philosopher and lectures at the University of Clermont-Ferrand. He has published extensively, both in the form of comprehensive reflections on philosophy (La Totalité, 6 volumes, Champ Vallon), and in the form of didactic works that have become best-sellers: La philosophie pour les nuls (2005), Le comptoir philosophique : 123 notions clés pour mieux comprendre le monde contemporain (2007).