The conference is about ethical issues arising from natural disasters and disaster relief.
Professor Jennifer Leaning, Director of the Francois-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health and Co-Director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, will be delivering a keynote address.
Dr. Sherri Fink, a MD and investigative journalist, will run an interactive simulation with conference attendees based on the story of the physicians and patients trapped inside a New Orleans hospital in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Faced with rapidly deteriorating patients in a hospital without electrical power and dwindling resources, respected physicians and nurses in the hospital decided to lethally inject at least 17 patients. Many of the patients were near death, but several were not. Their reasoning stemmed from the observation that while all individuals in the hospital were being evacuated, moving these patients appeared impossible. To leave them behind would be to likely condemn them to eventual agonizing death.
Dr. Fink’s piece required $400,000 to complete and is believed by many to be a contender for a Pulitzer Prize. The story forces us to ask, who should receive limited resources in disaster situations? Is it truly justifiable to do the greatest good for the greatest number? Should physicians be held accountable for their actions in such circumstances? The simulation will be a unique experience that conference attendees will never forget.
There will also be a number of breakout seminars led by professors and experts in the area. Refreshments will be provided.
Organized by The Harvard Undergraduate Bioethics Society