Bioethicist Arthur Caplan to discuss possibilities and pitfalls of personalized medicine


WHAT: The FIU Biomedical Engineering Department will host a lecture with bioethics expert Arthur Caplan as part of the 2010 – 2011 Wallace H. Coulter Foundation Lecture Series Seminar.  Caplan will discuss how the mapping of the human genome is influencing the shift from a “one size fits all” diagnosis and treatment medicine to a more individualized approach.  He will review the numerous ethical challenges that this change raises, such as how accurate diagnostic genetic testing should be, who should counsel patients, who will control genetic test information and how testing ought to be marketed.  Also, he will suggest ways for moving medicine and public policy forward in the era of genomic medicine.

WHO: Arthur Caplan is the Emmanuel and Robert Hart Director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pa.  He completed his undergraduate work at Brandeis University and he holds a doctorate degree in the history and philosophy of science from Columbia University.  Caplan, who has written 30 books and more than 550 papers, has served on national and international boards, including Chair of the National Cancer Institute Biobanking Ethics Working Group and serves as an expert on bioethical issues for national and international media outlets.

WHEN AND WHERE: Friday, Jan. 21, from 1-2:30 p.m, in Room EC 1114 at FIU’s Engineering Center, 10555 West Flagler Street, located on the corner of Flagler Street and Southwest 107th Avenue.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Please contact Chenzhong Li at  305-348-6717

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