The field of bioethics, examining ethical, legal, social, and cultural implications of advances in biotechnology and health care, has become increasingly important in recent years, given new developments in genetics, stem cells, assisted reproductive technology, end of life care, artificial intelligence and other areas. Questions about privacy and confidentiality of medical and other information, and about how to define when life starts and when it ends pose increasing challenges. This talk will explore the range of dilemmas that we are increasingly facing, and how bioethics can help us examine and address these.
Robert Klitzman, M.D., is a professor of psychiatry at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Joseph Mailman School of Public Health, and the Director of the online and in-person Bioethics Masters and Certificate Programs at Columbia University. He has written over 140 scientific journal articles, nine books, and numerous chapters on critical issues in bioethics. His books include Designing Babies: How Technology is Changing How We Have Children, When Doctors Become Patients, Am I My Genes? Confronting Fate and Family Secrets in the Age of Genetic Testing, A Year-Long Night: Tales of a Medical Internship, In a House of Dreams and Glass: Becoming a Psychiatrist, Being Positive: The Lives of Men and Women With HIV, The Trembling Mountain: A Personal Account of Kuru, Cannibals and Mad Cow Disease, Mortal Secrets: Truth and Lies in the Age of AIDS, and The Ethics Police?: The Struggle to Make Human Research Safe.
Robert has received numerous awards for his work, including fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the Aaron Diamond Foundation, the Hastings Center, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He is a member of the Empire State Stem Cell Commission, and served on the U.S. Department of Defense Research Ethics Advisory Panel. Robert is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a regular contributor to The New York Times and CNN.
