Previous Matthew Vandivier Sims Memorial Lectures

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.

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.

Richard Miller, Rebecca Dresser, and Damon Sims

The audiostream of the 2007 Lecture is available online at broadcast.iu.edu, using RealPlayer 8 Basic (a free program).

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.

2005 Sims Lecture

Dr. Childress examined contemporary conceptions of human dignity and their implications for public policies toward human cloning and commerce in transplantable organs.

Professor Childress is co-author with Tom L. Beauchamp of Principles of Biomedical Ethics, a classic in the field of biomedical ethics and now in its fifth edition. He also wrote Priorities in Biomedical Ethics, Who Should Decide? Paternalism in Health Care and Practical Reasoning in Bioethics. He received his B.A. from Guilford College, his B.D. from Yale Divinity School, and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University.

The audiostream of the 2005 Lecture is available online at broadcast.iu.edu, using RealPlayer 8 Basic (a free program).

Professor Childress pondered a question after dinner at the Poynter Center.

Professor Childress and Damon and Suzette Sims also had lunch with a group of students from the Wells Scholars and Hutton Honors College programs. After the lunch Damon Sims talked about the difficult decisions the family had to make during Matthew's brief life. He and Professor Childress fielded questions from the students about ethical issues families face when they have a loved one who has multiple life-threatening conditions.

Damon Sims talks to students.

2004 Sims Lecture

The photo shows Damon Sims, LeRoy Walters, Suzette Sims, and Richard Miller. Damon and Suzette Sims are Matthew's parents, Professor Walters gave the 2004 lecture, and Richard Miller is the director of the Poynter Center.
LeRoy Walters, 2004 Lecturer "Five Policy Options for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research: An International Perspective" LeRoy Walters, the Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. Professor of Christian Ethics at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics, Georgetown University, and a Professor of philosophy at Georgetown, presented the third Matthew Vandivier Sims Memorial Lecture on March 11, 2004. Professor Walters has been engaged with the ethical and public-policy questions surrounding recombinant DNA research and human-gene-transfer research since 1976. Recent publications include The Ethics of Human Gene Therapy, which he coauthored with Julie Gage Palmer (Oxford University Press, 1997) and Contemporary Issues in Bioethics. The 6th edition of the anthology was coedited by Tom L. Beauchamp and published by Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2003. The audiostream of the 2004 Lecture is available online at broadcast.iu.edu, using RealPlayer 8 Basic (a free program).

2003 Sims Lecture

Thomas Murray, 2003 Lecturer
"Parents, Children, and Cloning"

Thomas Murray, President of The Hastings Center, presented the second Matthew Vandivier Sims Memorial Lecture on March 5, 2003. His lecture emphasized that the primary aim must be the child's good, and that mutuality is an appropriate framework for decision-making.

Professor Murray is the author of more than 200 publication, including The Worth of a Child from University of Californai Press and Healthcare Ethics and Human Values: An Introductory Text with Readings and Case Studies from Blackwell Publishers, which he edited with Bill Fulford and Donna Dickenson.

2002 Sims Lecture

William F. May, 2002 Lecturer
"Medical Futility and Staying the Course"

William F. May, Cary Maguire University Professor of Ethics Emeritus at Southern Methodist University gave the inaugural Matthew Vandivier Sims Memorial Lecture.

William May and Damon Sims in Fall 2005, when Professor May visited IU.