Respected Scholar to Discuss Bioethics and Mental Health

William Winslade to Give Biannual Healthcare Values and Ethics Lecture

William Winslade, a respected scholar who teaches and writes about the legal aspects of bioethics and mental health, will be delivering a lecture Tuesday, March 24 at the University of Houston.

William WinsladeThe presentation is the fifth in a biannual series sponsored by the Delta Gamma Foundation Richard D. Shirk Family Lectureship in Healthcare Values and Ethics. Hosted by the UH College of Optometry, the event is free and open to the public. No tickets are required.

Winslade’s talk – Innovations and Ethics in Treating Eye and Brain Disease – will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in Cullen Performance Hall. A question and answer session will follow. In his talk, Winslade will discuss the history, use and ethics of disease management that use such methods as electroconvulsive treatment (ECT), deep brain stimulation (DBS), lasers and cancer drugs.

“ECT and DBS have each been touted as a panacea for all mental illnesses, even though it is not clear how or why these uses of electricity are therapeutic,” he said. “I will explain why these treatments generate ethical problems and how inappropriate overuse and misuse have been prevented.”

Additionally, he will address how the approaches of managing many eye diseases also have generated both innovations and ethical issues. He will focus specifically on the evolution of treating wet macular degeneration (WMD). Initial treatment for WMD incorporated hot lasers that often caused excessive damage, as well as total loss of sight in the affected eye. More recent treatments that employ cancer drugs raise ethical issues not just about cost, but also give rise to concerns over whether the techniques cause unnecessary pain.

Winslade is the James Wade Rockwell Professor of Philosophy in Medicine, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Community Health, and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, as well as Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Houston Health Law and Policy Institute. Winslade has practiced both as a lawyer and a psychoanalyst, and his book, “Confronting Traumatic Brain Injury: Devastation, Hope and Healing,” was nominated by Yale University for a Pulitzer Prize.

Winslade holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from Northwestern University, a J.D. from University of California, Los Angeles Law School and a Ph.D. in psychoanalysis from the Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute.

WHO:
Delta Gamma Foundation Richard D. Shirk Family Lectureship in Healthcare Values and Ethics

WHAT:
William Winslade, Ph.D., J.D.
Lecture: “Innovations and Ethics in Treating Eye and Brain Disease”
      
WHEN:
6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Tuesday, March 24

WHERE:
University of Houston
Cullen Performance Hall
Map: https://uh.edu/maps/buildings/?short_name=A

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