Event

Professor Ruha Benjamin of African American Studies at Princeton University will be speaking at the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy on Tuesday, September 20th, 2016 at 12:00pm.  Please see the abstract below for her talk titled: Informed Refusal: Towards A Justice-based Bioethics.

For more information on Professor Benjamin, please refer to her webpage here.

Lecture Abstract 

"Why am I in such demand as a research subject, when no one wants me as a patient?” 

In this talk, Professor Benjamin will examine how power and inequality infuse the practice of science and medicine. Drawing together insights from three moments of “informed refusal" in the US, South Africa, and Britain, she will discuss the limits of individual autonomy and outline the contours of a justice-oriented approach to bioethics that reclaims the epistemological and political value of refusal. Finally, she will link this discussion to broader social developments in and outside the academy including the work of medical students who have mobilized under the banner of #WhiteCoatsforBlackLives.

If you would like to attend the seminar, please RSVP to Francis Terpening no later than Friday, September 16, 2016.  Space is limited, and reservations will be made on a first come, first serve basis.  Lunch will be served at 11:45am and the talk promptly begin at 12:00pm in the Benjamin Franklin Room in Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104.