Elizabethtown College News Release
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
9/1/04
Contact: Mary Dolheimer, director of marketing and media relations, 717-361-1587, dolheimerm@etown.edu
Penn’s Center for Bioethics director to discuss reproductive choices, values at Elizabethtown College
ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – The director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Bioethics will present “The Impact of Technology on Reproductive Choices and Values” at 11 a.m., Sept. 15, in Elizabethtown College’s Leffler Chapel and Performance Center. Art Caplan’s talk is open to the public free of charge.
Caplan is also the Emmanuel and Robert Hart Professor of Bioethics and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics at Penn. He previously taught at the University of Minnesota, the University of Pittsburgh and Columbia University. He was the associate director of the Hastings Center from 1984-1987.
Born in Boston, Caplan did his undergraduate work at Brandeis University and his graduate work at Columbia University, where he received a doctorate in the history and philosophy of science. Author or editor of 25 books and more than 500 papers in refereed journals of medicine, science, philosophy, bioethics and health policy, Caplan writes a regular column on bioethics for MSNBC.com and is a frequent guest and commentator for National Public Radio, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer and many other media outlets.
Caplan has served on a number of national and international committees, including serving as chair of the Advisory Committee to the United Nations on Human Cloning and the Advisory Committee to the Department of Health and Human Services on Blood Safety and Availability, as a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses, the special advisory committee to the International Olympic Committee on genetics and gene therapy, the American Chemistry Council and the special advisory panel to the National Institutes of Mental Health on human experimentation on vulnerable subjects. He is a member of Dupont’s biotechnology advisory panel and has consulted with many corporations and consumer organizations.
Caplan is the recipient of many awards and honors, including the McGovern Medal of the American Medical Writers Association, Person of the Year-2001 from USA Today, one of the 50 most influential people in American health care by Modern Health Care magazine and one of the 10 most influential people in America in biotechnology by the National Journal. He holds six honorary degrees from colleges and medical schools and is a fellow of the Hastings Center, the New York Academy of Medicine, the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
At Elizabethtown College -- central Pennsylvania’s premier small, comprehensive college -- 1800 men and women enjoy personal attention, breadth of curriculum, experiential learning and a commitment to serving others. Elizabethtown has been ranked for 10 consecutive years by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top comprehensive colleges in the North.
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