Spring 2004 Brown Bag Series
Thursday,
January 15, 2004 -- Adrienne Asch, Ph.D., M.S.
For the past twenty years, the field of bioethics has been challenged
to become more sensitive to issues of race, class, gender, and disability.
The disability critique of bioethics rests on much-disputed claims: first,
that the presence of even what are perceived as severe impairments need not
preclude a rewarding life for a person with a disability and for that person's
family and community; second, that when a disability is alleged to diminish
life quality or satisfaction, many of the explanations stem from the society's
failure to fully incorporate people with disabilities into all aspects of
social, political, and economic life. In my talk, I will explain how these
beliefs do not preclude support for medical research and cure, although they
challenge justifications for reventing the births of people who will live
with disabilities and oppose assumptions that people with significant impairments
should be candidates for physician-assisted suicide. I intend to present a
brief outline of this argument and devote most of the time to responding to
questions and critiques. The audience can expect to: 1) understand the disability
perspective on bioethics debates; 2) understand the challenges to those perspectives;
and 3) differentiate between adequate and inadequate responses to those challenges.
in 2000 by Georgetown University Press. She is a past boardmember of the Society
for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, the Society for Disability Studies,
the Council for Responsible Genetics, the Boston Women's Health Book Collective,
and currently serves on the board of the American Society for Bioethics and
Humanities.
Tuesday,
January 17, 2004 -- Marian A. Verkerk, Ph.D
Marian A. Verkerk is Professor of Philosophy and Director of Center for Care Ethics (Expertisecentrum Ethiek in de Zorg) at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.
Surveys persistently indicate that medical doctors are the public’s most trusted source for information on food, yet food and agricultural issues are seldom addressed in bioethics. Professor Thompson will provide a broad overview of key issues in agricultural and food ethics, emphasizing environmental and food borne sources of health risk, on the one hand, and the debate between industrial and agrarian philosophies of agriculture, on the other. He will then lead a discussion on the place of these issues within the broader spectrum of bioethics, and on their relevance to biomedical professionals.
Paul B. Thompson holds the W.K. Kellogg Chair in Agricultural, Food and Community Ethics at Michigan State University. He has served on U.S. National Research Council committees, as a consultant to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and is a Fellow of the Hastings Center. His publications include Spirit of the Soil: Agriculture and Environmental Ethics (1995) and Food Biotechnology in Ethical Perspective (1997).
Wednesday, March 24, 2004 — Steven Palmer, Ph.D.
in Latin America, 1914-1930
While treating hookworm disease in Latin America in the early 20th century, teams under the direction of Rockefeller Foundation physicians administered hundreds, perhaps thousands, of lethal doses of oil of chenopodium, mostly to children. The presentation explores the half-conscious breach of medical ethics by the Foundation directors and medical personnel, one that was permissible due to the subordinate status of the patients and the desire to engage in a vast project of experimentation on human subjects that would not have been possible had an ethical code been established and enforced.
Steven Palmer researches the history of popular and conventional medicine in Latin America, as well as the history of public health in the region. His most recent book is From Popular Medicine to Medical Populism: Doctors, Healers and Public Power in Costa Rica, 1800-1940 (Duke University Press, 2003).
Thursday, April 8, 2004 -- Patricia A. Marshall, Ph.D.
This event was supported in part by a generous gift from Dr. Jeff (CHM 1979) and Cindy Wagner. Support was also received from the Department of Anthropology and Global and Area Thematic Initiatives (GATI) which is funded by: African Studies Center, Asian Studies Center, Center for Advanced Study of International Development Program, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Women and International Development, The of the Provost, and The Office of International Studies and Programs.
Informed consent—if
it is truly “informed” and sensitive to local context—is
a strong mechanism for protecting participants in scientific research. However,
there are inherent constraints in the application of informed consent that
can and do limit its capacity to safeguard the interests of those being invited
to participate in a study, including assumptions about voluntary participation,
comprehension, and beliefs about the locus of decisional capacity. Social
power and personal trust are key components in the relationship between researchers
and individuals participating in their studies. This paper reports findings
from a study comparing consent to genetic research among individuals of African
heritage in the U.S. and Nigeria. Interviews exploring comprehension of information
and decision-making participation were conducted with 870 adults participating
in genetics of hypertension projects in metropolitan Chicago, in the U.S.,
and Igbo-Ora, Nigeria, and women participating in a genetics of breast cancer
study in Ibadan, Nigeria. This presentation will focus on the Nigerian results.
The audience can expect to: 1) understand universal requirements for informed
consent in scientific research; 2) identify socio-cultural, economic, and
political challenges to these requirements; and 3) identify future directions
for empirical research on simplified approaches and educational interventions
to improve consent in medical research for diverse populations globally.
Patricia
Marshall is Associate Professor in the Department of Bioethics at the School
of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her research
interests and publications focus on multi-culturalism and the application
of bioethics practices, research ethics and informed consent, and HIV prevention
among injection drug users. Dr. Marshall also served on the Advisory Board
for the Fogarty International Center at the National Institutes of Health.
She was a consultant to the President’s National Bioethics Advisory
Commission on their project examining ethical issues in international health
research. In 2000, she was a consultant to the World Health Organization’s
Council for International Organization of Medical Societies on their revision
of ethical guidelines for international research. In 1991, Dr. Marshall was
awarded the Kellogg Foundation National Fellowship for creative leadership.
This activity has been planned and implemented in accordance with the Essential Areas and Policies of the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) through the joint sponsorship of Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine and the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences. The Michigan State University College of Human Medicine is accredited by the ACCME to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, designates this educational activity for a maximum of 1 hour in category 1 credit per session towards the AMA Physician's Recognition Award. Each physician should claim only those hours of credit that he/she actually spent in the activity.
