Three Nobel Prize winners will speak at the University of Houston on Sept. 9 to kick off the Holocaust Museum Houston’s 15-part, free public lecture series exploring how the medical practices of the Third Reich continue to influence modern-day society.

The “Medical Ethics and the Holocaust” lecture series opens at 7 p.m. at UH’s Cullen Performance Hall. DNA pioneer James Watson, Ph.D., 1962 Nobel Laureate, medicine or physiology, and Eric Kandel, M.D., 2000 Nobel Laureate, medicine or physiology, will offer their views on “Science and Medicine After the Holocaust.” The lecture, co-sponsored by UH, will be moderated by Ferid Murad, M.D., Ph.D., the 1998 Nobel Laureate, medicine or physiology.

The University of Houston’s Elizabeth D. Rockwell Ethics and Leadership Lecture concludes the lecture series on Jan. 17. Speakers are Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director, National Human Genome Research Institute, and Christine Rosen, Fellow, Project on Biotechnology and American Democracy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center and senior editor, The New Atlantis. Collins discusses “21st Century Genetics: Maximizing Benefits, Minimizing Harms,” while Rosen speaks on “What Does 21st Century Eugenics Look Like? Both talks are at 7 p.m. at Cullen Performance Hall.

To register for the lectures, please visit: www.hmh.org/medethics. For directions and parking information, visit: http://www.uh.edu/campus_map/buildings/A.html.

Other speakers and lectures included in the series, all of which (except for the closing lectures Jan. 17) take place at 6 p.m. at the Holocaust Museum Houston, 5401 Caroline St., are:

September 18

Arthur L. Caplan, Ph.D., The Emmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics, chair of the Department of Medical Ethics, director of the Center for Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania; “Why Is It So Hard to Learn the Ethical Lessons of the Holocaust?”

September 25

Leon R. Kass, M.D, Ph.D., Hertog Fellow, American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research;
“A More Perfect Human: The Promise and Peril of Modern Medicine”

October 2

Sandra Ann Carson, M.D., professor of obstetrics and gynecology, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University; “Pre-Implantation Genetic Diagnosis”

Edwin Black, New York Times investigative author whose work focuses on genocide and hate; “From Long Island to Auschwitz: The Surprising Origin of the ‘Master Race’ Concept”

October 9

Theresa M. Duello, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison; and Jordan Cohen, M.D., president emeritus, Association of American Medical Colleges; “What Should We Tell Medical Students about Racial Hygiene, Cultural Diversity, the Doctor-Patient Relationship and Professionalism?”

Jordan Cohen, M.D., president emeritus, Association of American Medical Colleges; “What Should We Tell Medical Students about Racial Hygiene, Cultural Diversity, the Doctor-Patient Relationship and Professionalism?”

October 16

Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D., chairman, The President’s Council on Bioethics; professor emeritus of medicine and medical ethics and adjunct professor of philosophy, Georgetown University;
“How Doctors Become Killers”

Ward Connerly, founder and chairman, American Civil Rights Institute; president and CEO of Connerly & Associates, Inc.; and author of the autobiography “Creating Equal: My Fight Against Race Preferences”;

October 23

Mark Adickes, M.D., co-medical director, The Roger Clemens Institute for Sports Medicine and Human Performance, Memorial Hermann; “Immediate Gratification and the Quest for Perfection: A Frank Discussion About the Use of Performance-Enhancing Drugs in Sports”

Susan E. Lederer, Ph.D., associate professor, history of medicine, Yale University School of Medicine; “Frankenstein or the More Perfect Human: Who Will It Be?”

October 30

Lex Frieden, senior vice president at Memorial Hermann-TIRR; former chair, National Council on Disability; “Disability and Genocide: Where Are We Today?”

November 6

Glen O. Gabbard, M.D., Brown Foundation Professor of Psychoanalysis, professor and director, Baylor Psychiatry Clinic, Baylor College of Medicine; “Cinematic Perspectives on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide”

November 13

George J. Annas, J.D., Edward R. Utley Professor and chair, Department of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health; “The Legacy of the Nuremberg Doctors' Trial to American Bioethics and Human Rights”

November 20

Rabbi Irving Greenberg, Ph.D.; “Power for Life or Power for Death? How and Why Science and Religion Can Work Together for Life After the Holocaust”

John M. Haas, Ph.D., president, National Catholic Bioethics Center; “Science, Medicine and Religion After the Holocaust”

November 27

Kathryn L. Tucker, J.D., director, Legal Affairs for Compassion & Choices; adjunct professor of law, Lewis & Clark School of Law; “Physician Aid in Dying and Why Should This Option be Available? What Happens When Aid in Dying is Legal?”

Wesley Smith, senior fellow, Discovery Institute; attorney, International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide; and special consultant, Center for Bioethics and Culture; “Is Physician-Assisted Suicide Ever Permissible?”

December 4

Volker Roelcke, M.D., professor, chair and director, Institute of the History of Medicine, University of Gissen, Germany; “Academic Medicine During the Nazi Period and Implications for Creating Awareness of Professional Responsibility Today”

William Seidelman, M.D., professor emeritus, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto; “Academic Medicine During the Nazi Period and Implications for Creating Awareness of Professional Responsibility Today”

December 11

Michael A. Grodin, M.D., professor, Department of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights, Boston University School of Public Health; “Mad, Bad or Evil: How Physician Healers Turn to Torture, Murder and Genocide from the Nazi Doctors to Abu Ghraib”

Michael L. Gross, Ph.D., chair, Division of International Relations, School of Political Sciences, The University of Haifa, Israel; “Is Medicine a Pacifist Vocation or Should Doctors Help Build Bombs?”

January 7

Henry T. Greely, J.D., Deane F. and Kate Edelman Johnson Professor of Law, Stanford Law School; “From Nuremberg to the Human Genome and Beyond -- From Human Rights to Human Interests”

January 17

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., director, National Human Genome Research Institute; “21st Century Genetics: Maximizing Benefits, Minimizing Harms”

Christine Rosen, Ph.D., Fellow, Project on Biotechnology and American Democracy at the Ethics and Public Policy Center; and senior editor, The New Atlantis; “What Does 21st Century Eugenics Look Like?”

For more information about the series and the Holocaust Museum, please see: http://www.nodussolutions.com/
MedicalEthics/HomeDisplay.aspx.

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