MH&B Lecture Series

Our faculty presents weekly lectures during The Graduate School's Fall, Winter, and Spring quarters every Thursday from noon to 12:50pm in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie building. Due to public interest, we have made these lectures open to all, inside and outside the Northwestern community. Please feel free to bring a lunch. Beginning this year, we are recording these lectures and making them available online. These recordings are playable in iTunes and include the presentation slides in sync with the audio. More information is available here. Key to recording symbols: Available Will be available soon Will not be made available (More information)

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Lecture Series

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Disability Ethics as a Tale of Two (or More) Stories
Thursday, January 17

Who gets to frame the story? What stakeholder perspectives are relevant? Disability ethics engages narrative and feminist ethics to critique ethical issues involving people with disabilities. This presentation will use some classic stories involving people with disabilities to illustrate the value of this approach.
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Personhood in the Context of New Onset Disability
Thursday, January 24

Definitions of personhood are remarkably elusive with theories espousing biological life to the presence of neocortical function. It is within this cultural context that questions of personhood after new onset disabilities arise. This presentation will explore theories of personhood and use the examples of spinal cord injury and brain injury to explore the implications of various theories of personhood in medical decision-making.
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Ashley X as a Cautionary Tale
Thursday, January 31

Altering bodies for non-medical reasons has been an increasingly accepted part of Western medical practice since the inception of cosmetic surgery. Invariably, though, patients who request cosmetic surgery are doing so for themselves, based upon a personal analysis of their quality of life. The recent controversial case of Ashley X raises the question of whether parents should be able to request surgery or treatments to alter the healthy body of their non-consenting child with disabilities, based upon beliefs about their child's quality of life. This presentation will explore the implications of such decisions.