U-M bioethicist tackles health reform at Medical Humanities Conference
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—A bioethicist and medical doctor at the University of Michigan will address the failures of health reform efforts as the keynote speaker at the Fourth Annual Medical Humanities Conference this week at Western Michigan University.
Dr. Susan Dorr Goold, founder and first director of the U-M Bioethics Program, will speak at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, in the Fetzer Center's Putney Auditorium. Her presentation, titled "Market Failures, Moral Failures and Health Reform," is free and open to the public without conference registration. The conference runs Thursday and Friday, Sept. 18-19, in the Fetzer Center.
Dr. Susan Dorr Goold
Since launching the bioethics program 14 years ago, Goold has led a team of ethics researchers from the U-M Health System and other areas of the university who study a broad range of topics in medical and life-science ethics. Goold received her medical degree from the U-M and completed a residency in internal medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. During her general medicine fellowship at the U-M from 1990-92, she completed a master's of health services administration degree from the U-M School of Public Health and a master's degree in philosophy at Michigan State University. Goold is an expert in medical ethics, especially in the area of rationing and cost containment and speaks often on the subject.
About the conference
In addition to the Goold's address, the conference includes dozens of concurrent and plenary sessions, with presentations by scholars from across the nation addressing key human issues related to health and medicine. Activities include sessions on "Compassionate Care and Human Suffering," "Cultivating the Senses through the Art of Practicing Chinese Medicine," "Philosophy's Silence on Dying Well," "The Diverse Political Uses of Eugenics" and many more.
The conference is co-sponsored by WMU's Office for Vice President of Research, Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, Center for the Humanities, Department of Philosophy and the WMU Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine.
For more information
Registration is $115 for the general public or $65 for students. For more information or to register, visit wmich.edu/medicalhumanities/conference2014.