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Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program

MH&B Special Topics Lectures

These lectures address diverse topics within bioethics and the medical humanities. Speakers are MH&B faculty or special guests we've invited to present. The lectures run every Thursday from noon to 12:45pm in the Searle Seminar Room in the Lurie building, during The Graduate School's fall, winter, and spring quarters. Due to public interest, we've made these lectures open to all, inside and outside the Northwestern community. Please feel free to bring a lunch.

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Family and Patient Decision Making in Health Care
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Rebecca Brashler, LCSW 

Rebecca Brashler, LCSW
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Assistant Professor
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
Medical Humanities & Bioethics

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Director of Family Support Services
Donnelley Family Disability Ethics Program
Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago


Advance Directives: What Are They Good For?
Thursday, October 23, 2008

We've been told that if only Terri Schiavo had completed an advance directive - all that trouble could have been avoided. Is that the case? How good are we at predicting how we'll feel about future medical events and are legal documents the answer?
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Decisional Capacity: I Know It When I See It
Thursday, October 30, 2008

The concept of patient autonomy is central to bioethics. But what happens when patients make "bad" health care decisions? Who should decide when a patient lacks decisional capacity and how should capacity be assessed?
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The Role of the Family in Health Care
Thursday, November 6, 2008

Traditional bioethics has focused on the physician-patient relationship. The relationship between family members and health care providers has not been examined in equal detail and seems more uncertain. What is the appropriate role of a supportive family member? Are they our allies or do they just make our jobs more complicated?

This page last updated on...October 21, 2008 12:21 PM.