Bioethicist Ruth Faden to Address Health Care Ethics

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., April 20, 2015—On Thursday, April 23, bioethics professor Ruth Faden will present a talk at Williams College titled “Henrietta Lacks: Ethics at the Intersection of Health Care and Biomedical Science.” This event will take place at 7:30 p.m. in Griffin Hall, room 3. It is free and open to the public.

In her talk, Faden will summarize the story of Henrietta Lacks and the ethics of using human tissues in biomedical science. She will then broaden the discussion to a wider view of social justice and access to medical care. Although the science involved is important, Faden will use her theory of social justice to illustrate why so much of what is most compelling about the experience of Mrs. Lacks and her family has little to do with the science itself.

Currently, Faden is the Andreas C. Dracopoulos Director of Johns Hopkins University’s Berman Institute of Bioethics and the Philip Franklin Wagley Professor of Biomedical Ethics. She has written a number of books and articles on biomedical ethics and health policy, including Social Justice: The Moral Foundations of Public Health and Health Policy and A History and Theory of Informed Consent.

Faden is a member of the Institute of Medicine and a Fellow of the Hastings Center and the American Psychological Association.  She previously chaired President Clinton’s Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments. She is a co-founder of the Hinxton Group, a global community committed to advancing ethical and policy challenges in stem cell science, and the Second Wave project, an effort to ensure the health interests of pregnant women.

In 2011, Dr. Faden received lifetime achievement awards from the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) and Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research (PRIMR). She holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. from the University of Chicago, and a M.P.H. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley.

This is the final event in the college’s yearlong Williams Reads program, which focused on Rebecca Skloot’s The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It is co-sponsored by the departments of biology and philosophy, the public health program, the Gaudino Fund, and the lecture committee.

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For building locations on the Williams campus, please consult the map outside the driveway entrance to the Security Office located in Hopkins Hall on Main Street (Rte. 2), next to the Thompson Memorial Chapel, or call the Office of Communications (413) 597-4277. The map can also be found on the web at www.williams.edu/map

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Published April 20, 2015