Matthew Vandivier Sims Memorial Lectures, 2006 - 2008

The Matthew Vandivier Sims Memorial Lectures are to create discussion in one of two areas: issues in responsible communication between patients, families, professional care givers, and counselors; or issues in biomedical ethics.

Established in honor of Matthew Sims, who died in infancy, the series is a collaboration between Matthew's family and friends and the Poynter Center.

2008 Sims Lecture

Can we balance human rights and ethics in biomedical issues? John Arras addressed these issues in the Matthew Vandivier Sims Memorial Lecture. Arras is the Porterfield Professor of Biomedical Ethics and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia, where he created and directs the Undergraduate Program in Bioethics.

In an age of pandemics, international drug trials, and genetic technology, health has gone global, and so must bioethics. In search of an ethical framework that transcends national boundaries, some have claimed that human rights should be the new lingua franca of bioethics. Although human rights provide a powerful framework for the defense of human dignity, Professor Arras will look at questions that remain about their application and adequacy as a framework for the new global bioethics.

Research interests of Professor Arras include death and dying, physician-assisted suicide, research ethics, AIDS research and availability of treatment across the world, and ethical issues that would accompany an avian flu pandemic. He is an advisor to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes for Health. He has been a Fellow and Board member at the Hastings Center.

Professor Arras has written widely and authored and edited numerous books and articles. Recent edited works include Ethical Issues in Modern Medicine (7th edition) with Bonnie Steinbock and Alex John London and Ethical and Regulatory Aspects of Clinical Research: Readings and Commentary with Ezekiel J. Emanuel, Robert A. Crouch, Christine Grady, and Jonathan D. Moreno. The audiostream of the 2008 Lecture is available online at broadcast.iu.edu, using RealPlayer 8 Basic (a free program).	John Arras, Richard Miller, and Damon Sims

2007 Sims Lecture

Professor Dresser is the Daniel Noyes Kirby Professor of Law and Professor of Ethics in Medicine at Washington University in St. Louis. She is a 1973 graduate of Indiana University Bloomington and received her M.S. from IUB in 1975. She received her law degree from Harvard in 1979. She has been a member of the President's Council on Bioethics since 2002.

Since 1983 she has taught in areas of legal and ethical issues in end-of-life issues, biomedical research, genetics, assisted reproduction, and related issues. Before coming to Washington University, she taught at Baylor College of Medicine and Case Western Reserve University. She is the author of When Science Offers Salvation: Patient Advocacy and Research Ethics. The audiostream of the 2007 Lecture is available online at broadcast.iu.edu, using RealPlayer 8 Basic (a free program). Richard Miller, Rebecca Dresser, and Damon Sims

2006 Sims Lecture

Professor Green spoke on "Babies by Design? The Ethics of Gene Enhancement," a topic he is studying as a Guggenheim Fellow. Green joined Dartmouth's Religion Department in 1969, and he directs the Ethics Institute. He helped create and directed the Office of Genome Ethics at the National Human Genome Research Institute of the National Institutes of Health in 1996 and 1997. Green's research interests include genetic ethics, biomedical ethics, and issues of justice in the allocation of health care.

Green's most recent publication is The Human Embryo Research Debates: Bioethics in the Vortex of Controversy, in which Green addresses some of the issues in human embryo research. He has written five other books, including The Ethical Manager and Religion and Moral Reason: A New Method for Comparative Study. He edited Religion and Sexual Health: Ethical, Theological and Clinical Perspectives. In addition to authoring many scholarly articles in biomedical ethics, ethical theory and comparative religious ethics, business ethics, organizational ethics and economic justice, Green has co-produced two hour-long documentary videos on parents and neonatal care.

	The audiostream of the 2006 Lecture is available online at broadcast.iu.edu, using RealPlayer 8 Basic (a free program). Ron Green had lunch and discussion with students from the Wells Scholars Program and the Honors College.