Wednesdays 3-5 PM
October 1 through November 19, 2003
D.O.C. House
In the past several decades, medical ethics have been shaped by renowned legal cases representing a broad range of moral, legal and social dilemmas. Most of these stem from advances in medical science that have created unprecedented opportunities for the preservation, prolongation and enhancement of life.
As a group, we will review a number of these cases using as a reference a single text, ethicist Robert Pence's Classic Cases in Medical Ethics. The major topics include Death and Dying, The Beginning of Life, Research and Experimental Treatment, and Individual Rights and the Public Good. To enhance group discussion, volunteers will be assigned cases to review for the group, identifying the major ethical issues for discussion by the group. As appropriate, these with ethical dilemmas will be expanded upon from the study leader's own experience.
Class is limited to 25 participants.
Gene Stollerman, MD (Dartmouth '41, Columbia '44) is Emeritus Professor of Medicine & Public Health at Boston University. His research on the prevention of rheumatic fever, rheumatic heart disease and on bacterial vaccines is internationally known. Formerly Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of Tennessee and later Distinguished Physician of the Department of Veterans Affairs, he has served as President of the Association of Professors of Medicine, Regent of the American College of Physicians and the American Board of Internal Medicine, and on the Councils of the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control, WHO Expert Committee on Cardiovascular Diseases, the Food & Drug Administration and the Institute of Medicine. A teacher and investigator of geriatrics and primary care for the past 20 years at Boston University, he edited the Journal of the American Geriatrics Association, introducing a section on medical ethics research. He has pioneered academic programs on health services research and outcomes of end of life care.
