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Experts
Share Viewpoints on Medical Ethics Issues
Lightning rod issues such as reproductive technologies, genetic mapping, and the just distribution of health care will be dissected by medical ethics experts at a day-long conference on campus this weekend. Several University faculty are scheduled to participate in the conference, which takes place Saturday, April 29, 9 a.m.-5:15 p.m. in 65 Bartlett Hall. The conference opens at 9 a.m. with a session on "The Bioethics of the Human Genome Diversity Project: Cross-Cultural Currents." Anthropology professor Alan Swedlund will be the speaker and anthropology professor Ann Herring of McMaster University will serve as commentator. The session will be chaired by Stephen Gehlbach, dean of the School of Public Health and Health Sciences. "Parental Autonomy and Reproductive Technologies: Babies to Specification" will be addressed at 10:45 by Bonnie Steinbock, professor of philosophy at SUNY-Albany. Clay Splawn, a Ph.D. student in Philosophy, will be the commentator and associate professor of Nursing Brenda Millette will chair the program. At 2 p.m., the discussion shifts to "An Alternative to Physician-Assisted Suicide" with speaker Bernard Gert, chair of the philosophy department at Dartmouth College. Philosophy Ph.D. student Jean-Paul Vessel will be the commentator. Dr. Andrew Larkin, chair of the ethics committee at Cooley Dickinson Hospital will chair the session. The conference concludes with an examination of the "Just Distribution of Health Care: Substantive and Procedural Issues" at 3:45. Professor Dan Brock, director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Brown University, will be the speaker. Don Berkich, a doctoral candidate in Philosophy, will comment. Dr. Deborah Morsi of the Baystate Medical Center ethics committee, will chair the session. Sponsored by the Philosophy Department, the conference was organized in part by a small group of students who enrolled in an Honors Medical Ethics course last fall. Funding was provided by Commonwealth College. |
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