CLAREMONT, Calif., March 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) announced today that its 2007 Bioethics Symposium will feature academic, media and industry leaders exploring the topic, “Biotechnology and Human Rights: Industry’s Responsibility?”
The symposium will take place between 8:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on April 17 in the main lecture hall in Building 517 on the KGI campus. It is free and open to the public.
“KGI is committed not only to teaching the most advanced principles of science and business, but also asking the crucial ethical questions facing the bioscience industry,” said Sheldon Schuster, KGI’s president. “The biotechnology industry’s research and development activities take place around the world, and human rights activists are increasing their scrutiny of companies-from clinical research practices to drug pricing. This is why our bioethics symposium will discuss the enormous challenges facing industry as it tries to determine-and live up to-its social responsibilities.”
The symposium will examine four key topics: * The emergence of a human rights framework against which the actions of global biopharmaceutical companies are judged. * The existence and merits of a “reorientation” from bioethics to human rights. Are ethical and human rights approaches different? * The obligations, if any, of biotechnology corporations to advocate for, and support, human rights norms. * The impact that biotechnology-mediated “redesign” of humans might have on notions and practice of human rights.
Symposium speakers include Alexander Capron, the Scott H. Bice Chair in Healthcare Law, Policy and Ethics at USC; Ruth Macklin, professor of bioethics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine; Gregory Stock, director of the Program on Medicine, Technology, and Society at UCLA’s School of Public Health and Stephen Marks, the François-Xavier Bagnoud Professor of Health and Human Rights in the Department of Population and International Health of the Harvard School of Public Health.
Those who would like to attend the symposium should RSVP by April 9 by calling 909-607-7892 or by sending an e-mail to events@kgi.edu.
KGI BACKGROUND
Educating tomorrow’s bioscience industry leaders, Keck Graduate Institute (KGI) offers an interdisciplinary graduate education through its Master of Bioscience (MBS) degree program and its PhD program in Applied Life Sciences. Utilizing team-based learning with real-world projects, KGI’s innovative curriculum seamlessly combines computational and systems biology, bio-engineering, business management as well as bio-ethics. KGI also has a robust and cutting-edge research program geared toward the application of bioscience discoveries. KGI is a member of The Claremont Colleges, located in Claremont, California.
Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences is dedicated to education and research aimed at translating into practice, for the benefit of society, the power and potential of the life sciences.
Keck Graduate Institute
CONTACT: Noel Brinkerhoff, Assoc. Dir. of Donor & Media Relations of KeckGraduate Institute, +1-909-607-0135, nbrinker@kgi.edu
