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LOCAL Announcement :: Civil & Human Rights

Prescription Drugs for All? University of Chicago students to host second annual health care debate

Prescription Drugs for All (mini poster).jpg
Does the Current National Policy Towards the Pharmaceutical Industry Serve America’s Best Health Interests?

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, April 1, 2004-Experts in law and medicine will debate “Prescription Drugs for All?” on April 13th for the second annual Chicago Health Forum debate at the University of Chicago, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, 1156 E. 59th Street. A dinner will be served at 5:30 pm on the lawn of the chapel with the debate to follow.

The debate will showcase Professor Richard Epstein, Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, and Dr. Arnold Relman, Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, New England Journal of Medicine. Moderating the debate will be Dr. Mark Siegler, Lindy Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and Director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics. According to event co-organizer, Stephanie Graves, “This forum is a fantastic opportunity to present a debate between speakers with broadly different views-Epstein with his libertarian philosophy and Relman’s vocal criticism of the pharmaceutical industry’s policies.”

The debate will include some of the following topics for discussion:

* Can the average American family afford the prescription drugs they need?

* Will Medicare benefits be adequate to cover rising health care costs?

* Is it ethical for pharmaceutical companies to market directly to physicians and consumers?

* Should Americans be allowed to legally re-import medications for personal use?

* Do market incentives support the development of affordable drugs for the poor or new treatments for orphan diseases?

“We are very excited for this year’s much anticipated sequel to last year’s provocative event on national health insurance, which drew more than 700 people,” said Zack Cooper, another event co-organizer. Last year’s outstanding turnout prompted moving the event to Rockefeller Chapel, a venue with a much greater seating capacity.


About the speakers:

Richard Epstein, JD - Prof. Epstein is the James Parker Hall Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1972. He has served as a Senior Fellow of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago Pritzker Medical School, since 1983. At present he is a director of the John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics. Among his writings on health law is the book Mortal Peril: Our Inalienable Right to Health Care? (Addison-Wesley, 1997). Last year he debated “Health Care for All?” with Dr. Quentin Young in the first annual Chicago Health Forum debate.

Arnold Relman, MD - Dr. Relman is Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the New England Journal of Medicine, where he served as editor for twenty-four years, and Professor emeritus of Medicine and Social Medicine at the Harvard Medical School. Dr. Relman is a Fellow of the American Academy of Sciences and has served on the Health Professionals Review Group for the White House. He received the Polk Journalism Prize in 2003 for a study of the pharmaceutical industry and is currently working on a book about health care reform.

Mark Siegler, MD - Dr. Siegler is the Lindy Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1971. He has served as the director of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics since its inception in 1984. Dr. Siegler’s most recent book is Clinical Ethics: A Practical Approach to Ethical Decision Making in Clinical Medicine. He has practiced general internal medicine for more than thirty years.

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Sponsors of the event include: The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and Biological Sciences Division, Students for Global Public Health, The John M. Olin Program in Law and Economics, The MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics, The Human Rights Program at the Center for International Studies, The University Community Service Center, and The University of Chicago Student Government.

The University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine was founded in 1927 and graduates 105 physicians annually. Fundamental educational philosophies include excellence in teaching quality and compassionate patient care, the scientific basis of medicine, and community and social involvement.

For more information about the prescription drug debate, visit www.chicagohealthforum.org
or contact the event organizers:

Zack Cooper, znc (at) uchicago.edu, (917) 648-0822 Stephanie Graves, sgraves (at) uchciago.edu, (773) 667-6288
Yousef Turshani, yousef (at) uchicago.edu. (773) 752-5814
 
 

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