Public Service
The Center's core faculty and faculty liaisons and associates participate in a great deal of community outreach/public service activities (workshops, public speaking, advising or consulting, and so on). The goal of these activities is to deepen the level of public, democratic deliberation about health and science policy. Some of the Center's public service activities are detailed below.
Medical Ethics Resource Network (MERN) of Michigan
The Medical Ethics Resource Network (MERN) of Michigan is a not-for-profit organization that provides a forum for sharing bioethics information and opportunities. Founded in 1986 by faculty from Michigan State University’s Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences as well as faculty from a number of other colleges and health care institutions in Michigan, the network promotes statewide collaboration and exchange between bioethics professionals in universities and health care professionals working on bioethics issues in hospitals and in other health care settings. The MERN newsletter Ethics in Formation comes out four times a year and is made available to all MERN members. The newsletter includes a variety of features including case study summaries, essays that discuss contemporary ethical issues, and summaries of recent relevant articles on health care ethics. MERN of Michigan very much represents the land grant mission of Michigan State University in the 21st century. For more information abou this network visit the MERN website.
Public Appearances
September 24, 2004 Howard Brody, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and past director of the Center, appeared on NPR's Science Friday program discussing his recently co-authored book about John Snow, a pioneer in the science of epidemiology. Click on the links for more information and/or to listen to this program in Real Audio Format or Windows Media Format.
July 28, 2004 Alice Dumont Dreger, Ph.D., Associate Faculty at the Center, appeared as part of a panel discussing Intersex on The Current, a production of CBC-Radio One. You can listen to the show or read about it by clicking on the links.
News and Views
May 29, 2005 Leonard M. Fleck, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy and Medicial Ethics at the Center contribuited an editorial to the May 29, 2005 The Detroit News regarding stem cell research.
Ongoing Howard Brody, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and past director of the Center, has been a regular contributor to the Lansing area publication, City Pulse for several years. Many of his columns deal with bioethics issues. A few his most recent columns can be viewed by clicking the links below.
4/20/05 Cold Turkey from Drug Reps: One Doctor's Story
4/20/05 Reps, Drugs and Rock-n-Roll at the Physician's Expo
4/20/05 Marketing vs Medicine: Two Case Studies
2/16/05 Weyco: Doing a Bad Thing in a Nice Way
1/12/05 For the Malnourished Elderly, Help Doesn't Always Help
12/29/04 Racially Targeted Drugs: Both Good and Bad News
12/15/04 A Heart Pill for Blacks Only: Good News or .....?
10/06/04 Right to Die - Apology
9/22/04 An Apology for Forced Sterilization
8/04/04 Action Needed on Health Care Reform
6/09/04 A Novel Approach to Malpractice: Telling the Truth
5/26/04 Evidence-Based Medicine Loses in a VA Courtroom
4/21/04 Bush and Health Care
2/11/04 The Downside of Genetic Testing
1/14/04 Genetic Testing: When is it Beneficial?
12/3/03 The New Medicare Rx Program
11/19/03 Rx Profits and Research
11/05/03 Protect Yourself ..... Unconcscious Court Dispute
10/08/03 The Illogic of Incremental Universal Health Insurances
