Focus
Upcoming
Thursday, March 14Medical Ethics Forum: Organs for Sale? The Economics of Altruism
Presenter: Frank Riddick, Chair, American Medical Association Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, and other panelists (see below)
4:00-6:00 p.m.
Carl Walter Amphitheater
Tosteson Medical Education Center
Harvard Medical School
As the demand for transplantable organs continues to outstrip supply, many people are looking to the market to do what altruism seems unable to do: encourage more people to donate. Recent news reports have highlighted the increasing traffic in organ sales from poor countries to wealthy countries. And the American Medical Association is currently looking at a proposal to study the effect financial incentives would have on cadaveric organ donation in the U.S. These are some of the issues that will be explored in this timely Medical Ethics Forum.
Panelists include Frank Riddick, MD, Chair, AMA Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs; Nancy Scheper-Hughes, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, and Director, Organs Watch; Clive Callender, MD, Chief of Surgery and Director of the Transplant Center, Howard University Hospital, and Chair, UNOS Minority Affairs Committee; Margaret Lock, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, McGill University; and Walter Robinson, MD, MPH, Pediatric Pulmonologist, Children's Hospital, and Associate Director, Division of Medical Ethics, Moderator.
Reception to follow. Please RSVP to DME@hms.harvard.edu. Sponsored by the Division of Medical Ethics.