Medical Ethics and the Holocaust

“The Discovery of DNA: Implications for the 21st Century”

James Dewey Watson
1962 Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine); one of the four discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule; Head of the Human Genome Project at the National Institutes of Health 1978-1992.

“In Search of Memory”

Eric Kandel, M.D.
2000 Nobel Laureate (Physiology or Medicine) Fred Kavli Professor, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons Director of the Kavli Institute for Brain Sciences at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

"Why is It So Hard to Learn the Ethical Lessons of the Holocaust?"

Arthur Caplan
The Emmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

“A More Perfect Human: The Promise and the Peril of Modern Science”

Leon Kass, M.D., Ph.D.
Hertog Fellow
American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy

“From Long Island to Auschwitz”

Edwin Black
Award-winning New York Times and international bestselling investigative author whose work focuses on genocide and hate.

“Pre-implantation Genetic Diagnosis”

Sandra Carson, M.D.
Professor and Medical Director, Assisted Reproductive Technology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

Panel Discussion: “What Should We Tell Medical Students About Racial Hygiene, Cultural Diversity, the Doctor- Patient Relationship, and Professionalism?”

Theresa Duello, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

and

Jordan Cohen, M.D.
President Emeritus of Association of American Medical Colleges

“How Doctors Become Killers”

Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D.
Chairman, The President’s Council on Bioethics, Professor Emeritus of Medicine and Medical Ethics and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University

and

“What is the Status of the Government-Citizen Relationship in the United States Today?”

Ward Connerly
Founder and Chairman of the American Civil Rights Institute, President and Chief Executive Officer of Connerly & Associates, Inc., author of the autobiography, Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences

"Frankenstein or the More Perfect Human: Who Will It Be?”

Susan E. Lederer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, History of Medicine, Yale University

and

“Immediate Gratification and the Quest for Perfection: A Frank Discussion about the Use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports”

Mark Adickes, M.D.
Co-Medical Director, The Roger Clemens Institute for Sports Medicine & Human Performance, Memorial Hermann, Houston, Texas

“Disability and Genocide – Where Are We Today?”

Lex Frieden
Senior Vice President at Memorial Hermann| TIRR Hospital, Chairperson of the National Council on Disability

Panelists:

• Richard Petty, Independent Living Research Utilization
• Jacquie Brennan, Director, Center for Paralegal Studies, University of Houston
• Bill Monroe, Professor of English and Executive Associate Dean of the Honors College, University of Houston
• Wendy Wilkinson, Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Baylor College of Medicine.

Michael Burleigh’s film “Selling Murder” followed by lecture:
"Cinematic Perspectives on Euthanasia and Assisted-Suicide"

Glen O. Gabbard, M.D.
Brown Foundation Professor of Psychoanalysis, Professor, and Director, Baylor Psychiatry Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine

“The Legacy of the Nuremberg Doctors’ Trial to American Bioethics and Human Rights”

George J. Annas, J.D., M.P.H.
Edward R. Utley Professor and Chair, Department of Health Law, Bioethics & Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health

“Power for Life or Power for Death? How and Why Science and Religion can Work Together for Life After the Holocaust”

Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Ph.D.
President, Jewish Life Network/Steinhardt Foundation

and

“Science, Medicine and Religion after the Holocaust”

John M. Haas, Ph.D. S.T.L.
President, National Catholic Bioethics Center

“Physician Aid in Dying: When and Why Should This Option be Available? What Happens When Aid in Dying is Legal?”

Kathryn L. Tucker, J.D.
Director of Legal Affairs for Compassion & Choices, Co-counsel in Oregon vs. Ashcroft

and

“Is Physician-Assisted Suicide Ever Permissible?”

Wesley Smith, LL.B.
Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, and an attorney for the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, and a special consultant for the Center for Bioethics and Culture

“Academic Medicine during the Nazi Period and Implications for Creating Awareness of Professional Responsibility Today?”

Prof. Dr. Volker Roelcke
Director, Institute of the History of Medicine, Germany

and

William Seidelman, M.D.
Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto

“Mad, Bad or Evil: How Physician Healers Turn to Torture, Murder and Genocide From the Nazi Doctors to Abu Ghraib”

Michael Grodin, M.D.
Professor of Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights, Department of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health; Professor of Socio-Medical Sciences, Community Medicine, and Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine

and

“Is Medicine a Pacifist Vocation, or Should Doctors Help Build Bombs??"

Michael L. Gross, Ph.D.
Chair, Division of International Relations, School of Political Sciences, The University of Haifa, Israel

“From Nuremberg to the Human Genome and Beyond – From Human Rights to Human Interests”

Henry T. “Hank” Greely, J.D.
Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law, Stanford Law School

“21st Century Genetics: Maximizing Benefits, Minimizing Harms”

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D.
Director, National Human Genome Research Institute, Bethesda, Maryland

and

“What Does 21st Century Eugenics Look Like?”

Christine Rosen, Ph.D.
Fellow for the Project on Biotechnology and American Democracy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and senior editor of The New Atlantis.

TORCH Jewish Medical Ethics Conference

“Assessing Risk in Patient Care”

George Noon, M.D.
Professor and Chief of the Division of Transplant Surgery and Assist Devices in the Michael E. DeBakey Dept. of Surgery, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

and

“Risky Medical Treatments - Jewish Perspective”

Avraham Steinberg, M.D.
Director of the Center for Medical Ethics, Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem and winner of the Israel Prize for his Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics