On Friday, January 27, 2006 a panel of leading bioethicists, physicians and activists will discuss women’s reproductive and sexual rights at the United Nations in New York City, USA. The panel is co-sponsored by the IHEU-Appignani Center for Bioethics and the Alden March Bioethics Institute of Albany, N.Y.
The event, titled “Bioethicists, physicians and feminist activists reconsider the terms of the debate about women’s reproductive and sexual rights at the UN,” will take place at 777 UN Plaza (12th floor), from 5:00 p.m. to 7:15 p.m. Cost: $12 for the general public and $6 for students. Pay at the door.
Speakers will include:
Judy Norsigian is a founding member of the Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, an educational nonprofit organization committed to women and health and a contributor to the 1998 update of Our Bodies, Ourselves. She is the Executive Director of Our Bodies, Ourselves.
Ruth L. Fischbach, PhD, MPE, is professor of Bioethics and director of the Center for Bioethics at Columbia University. She is a faculty member in the Department of Psychiatry at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and also in the Department of Sociomedical Sciences at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.
Marsha J. Tyson Darling, Ph.D. is professor of History and Interdisciplinary Studies and Director of the Center for African American & Ethnic Studies at Adelphi University, Garden City, NY. She is a historian who focuses on women of color, political power, and political equality. She published numerous articles and a book examining the social construction of race and sex in American scientific thinking.
Adrian Sà¢ngeorzan graduated from the Medical School at the University of Cluj, Transylvania and worked as a doctor in Romania until 1990 when he immigrated to the United States. He lives in New York and works as a specialist obstetrician and gynecologist. His prizewinning, bestselling volume of memoirs and fiction titled Between Two Worlds – Tales of a Women’s Doctor, is published in Romanian. He is a full time attending and faculty adviser at Jamaica Hospital, New York.
James Stacey Taylor is an assistant professor of Philosophy at The College of New Jersey. His is the editor of Personal Autonomy: New essays (Cambridge University Press, 2005), and the author of Stakes and Kidneys: Why markets in human body parts are morally imperative (Ashgate Press, 2005). He will moderate the panel.
“Children of the Decree” by Romanian filmmaker Florin Lepan will be featured during the panel discussion (running time 20 minutes). It was selected for screening in 2004 in NYC by the Margaret Mead Film & Video Festival. This documentary analyzes Romania’s quest to increase their population by over fifty percent in a single decade by imposing a ban on abortion in 1966. For 25 years, contraception and abortions were completely banned in communist Romania during Ceausescu’s dictatorship. It was a unique experiment in the human reproduction. Adrian Singeorzan, a practicing gynecologist and one of our panelists, was the main consultant for the documentary “Children of the Decree.”
The IHEU-Appignani Center for Bioethics focuses on raising awareness of bioethical issues confronting the international community and promotes a human-centered approach, developing and implementing an international program for lobbying. The Center is a new initiative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union.
For further information, contact Ana Lita at +1-212-687-3324 | +1-212-661-4188 (fax) | 