Spring 2003:
The Political Embryo: Reconceiving Human Reproduction
As the microscopic worlds of eggs, sperm, embryos, and genes
are explored in ever-greater detail, opportunities arise for serious
debate about what such research means.This series will bring together
leading scientists, ethicists, legal experts, science writiers,
and artists for discussions about existing and emerging human
reproductive technologies from a variety of perspectives. What
impact does laboratory research have on everyday life? How is
that work perceived and represented in both scientific and lay
terms? What is the impact of visual representation in communicating
the science (and fantasy) of human reproduction? How do we weigh
the potential benefits of stem-cell research against its perceived
ethical and cultural costs? Who is making policy and how? Speakers
will engage in public events, join student seminars on related
topics, and meet with faculty.
February 20, 2003
"Cloning and Embryonic Stem Cells: Controversy
and Reality"
Keynote: James M. Robl, Ph.D
President and Chief Scientific Officer, Hematech
Introduced by Rachel Fink (Biology, Mount Holyoke College)
Dr. Robl was the first to publish procedures for cloning in cattle
and later collaborated on production of the first cloned cattle
from embryonic cells. He went on to establish a first-class laboratory
for research on the mechanisms of early mammalian development
at the University of Massachusetts. Many of the students trained
in Dr. Robl's laboratory are now leaders in the embryo manipulation
industry. In 1995, Dr. Robl shifted his research efforts back
to the large agricultural species and focused on human therapeutic
and agricultural applications of cloning and genetic-modification
technologies. This effort resulted in the first genetically-modified
cattle cloned from cultured skin cells and the first patent issued
for mammalian somatic cell cloning technology. In 2000, Dr. Robl
left the University of Massachusetts to become president and chief
scientific officer of Hematech, a leading biotechnology company.
Hematech 's bovine-derived human antibodies should be useful for
a wide variety of therapeutic applications, including treatment
of antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections, recurring pediatric
respiratory and ear infections, and acquired and innate immune
deficiencies. Dr. Robl is also a founder of Nucleotech and the
author of over 100 research papers, review articles, book chapters,
and scientific abstracts. He is an inventor of six issued patents
and over 20 patent applications, and has appeared on several documentaries
and been interviewed on National Public Radio. He holds a Ph.D.
degree from the University of Illinois.
March 6, 2003
"In Utero: Imaging and Imagining"
Panel Discussion
This panel will address artistic, scientific, and political considerations
in visual depictions of human embryos and fetuses.
Moderator: Lynn M. Morgan (Anthropology, Mount Holyoke College)
Bradley Richard Smith, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Director, Biomedical Visualization, School
of Art and Design, University of Michigan. Senior Associate Research
Scientist, Department of Radiology, University of Michigan)
Professor Smith is a leading designer and producer in the field
of biomedical visualization. He holds a M.A. in medical illustration
from Johns Hopkins University and a Ph.D. in biology from Duke
University. His pioneering work in creating the technology to
visualize human embryos and to use magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) analysis of embryos has revolutionized the study of developmental
biology and the application of biomedical visualization in teaching
and in the field of medicine. Professor Smith is also the Principal
of BioImage, a medical illustration business and the author of
numerous research and scholarly publications on multiple applications
of MRI technology in the medical profession and in science. His
animation "The Incredible Human Body" and "Genetics:
Decoding Life, to name a few, have been in documentaries and exhibits
by National Geographic and on BBC.
Scott F. Gilbert, Ph.D.
(Howard A. Schneiderman Professor of Biology, Swarthmore College)
Professor Gilbert teaches developmental genetics, embryology,
and the history and critiques of biology. He earned his PhD in
biology from the pediatric genetics laboratory of Dr. Barbara
Migeon at the Johns Hopkins University (1976). His M.A. in the
history of science, also from The Johns Hopkins University, was
done under the supervision of Dr. Donna Haraway. Gilbert is currently
Chair of the Division of Developmental and Cell Biology of the
Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, a member of the
education committee of the Society for Developmental Biology,
and a fellow of the AAAS. He has written the textbook Developmental
Biology (presently in its sixth edition), as well as editing A
Conceptual History of Embryology and (along with his wife, Anne
M. Raunio) Embryology: Constructing the Organism. He has received
several awards, including the Medal of François I from
the Collège de France, the Dwight J. Ingle Memorial Writing
Award, the Choice Outstanding Academic Book Award, and a John
Simon Guggenheim Foundation Grant. He recently received a grant
from the National Science Foundation to work on how the turtle
forms its shell.
Rosamond Wolff Purcell
(photographer, artist, and writer)
Rosamond Purcell is a photographer whose acclaimed work includes
Special Cases: Natural Anomalies and Historical Monsters, a Village
Voice Book of the year, the award-winning Swift as a Shadow and
with Stephen Jay Gould, Crossing Over: Where Art and Science Meet.
(2000). Her photographs are featured in two recent books, A Long
Look at Nature by Margaret Martin, and DICE Deception, Fate and
Rotten Luck by Ricky Jay. Purcell has produced numerous volumes
of photography and artistic wonder that invite the reader and
the viewer to enter a world populated by museum artifacts and
odd creatures. Recent work by Purcell will be on display at the
Mount Holyoke Art Museum in February and March, 2003.
March 27, 2003
"Who decides? : Reproductive
Technologies, Ethics, and the Law"
Panelists will debate the ethics of reproductive technologies
from historical, political, and legal standpoints.
Moderator: Sean Decatur (Chemistry, Mount Holyoke College)
Daniel J. Kevles
(Stanley Woodward Professor of History,Yale University)
Professor Kevles is a leading historian of science, whose writing
on the history of genetics has won numerous book awards and praise
from both scientific and lay communities. His books include The
Code of Codes: Scientific and Social Issues in the Human Genome
Project, edited with Leroy Hood (1992) and The Baltimore Case:
A Trial of Politics, Science, and Character (1998), and, most
recently, Inventing America: A History of the United States, coauthored
with Alex Keyssar, Pauline Maier, and Merritt Roe Smith (2002).
He has also written articles on a wide range of topics including
the patenting of human genes, cloning, eugenics and human rights,
and the politics of science. He is the recipient of many prestigious
grants and fellowships from the Sloan Foundation, the National
Science Foundation, and the Mellon Foundation.
Adrienne Asch, Ph.D.
(Henry R. Luce Professor in Biology, Ethics, and the Politics
of Human Reproduction, Wellesley College)
Professor Asch holds a Ph.D in Social Psychology from Columbia
University and a MS in Social Work from the Columbia University
School of Social Work. She has received many honors and awards,
including the Barbara Waxman Fiduccia Memorial Award for Scholarship
in Reproductive Ethics and Disability, an Honorary Doctor of Laws
Degree from Swarthmore College, and a National Institutes of Health
Grant for "Prenatal Testing for Genetic Disability."
At Wellesley College, she teaches courses on current issues in
bioethics, reproduction, and genetics. Professor Asch has co-edited
or co-authored major studies on disability issues, the social
implications of genetics in a diverse society, prenatal testing,
surrogacy, and health care. She has contributed essays to major
publications on disability studies, gender, and rights, and is
recognized as a leading spokesperson on the legal, ethical, and
social dimensions of human reproduction.
Rebecca Susan Dresser, J.D.
(Daniel Noyes Kirby Professor of Law, Washington University)
Professor Dresser graduated from Harvard Law School with a J.D.
in 1979 and is a member of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission.
A leading authority on animal rights issues, patient advocacy
and research ethics, and the law and bioethics, Professor Dresser
is the author of When Science Offers Salvation: Patient Advocacy
and Research Ethics (2001) and coauthor of The Human Use of Animals:
Case Studies in Ethical Choice (1998). She has written numerous
law review articles that focus on the intersection between ethics
and policy in the health field and in animal research. An active
participant on advisory councils and ethics committees charged
with the advancement of science and with the establishment of
policy in the field of bioethics, Professor Dresser has also been
a Fellow at the Hastings Center and a Project Consultant at the
National Science Foundation.
April 17, 2002
"Reporting on the Embryo"
Keynote Speaker Gina Kolata (Science Reporter, NYTimes)
Sponsored by the Katherine B. Fitzgerald Lecture Fund
Introduced by Elizabeth Young (English and Film Studies, Mount
Holyoke College)
Gina Kolata reports on science and medicine for the New York
Times. Before joining the Times in 1987, she was a senior writer
for Science magazine. Ms. Kolata graduated from the University
of Maryland and studied molecular biology at the graduate level
at M.I.T. before returning to the University of Maryland to complete
a masters degree in applied mathematics. Ms. Kolata has also written
articles for a wide variety of magazines, including Smithsonian,
Ms., Glamour, GQ and Psychology Today. Her books include The Quest
for Truth about Exercise and Health (2003), Flu: The Story of
the Great Influenza Pandemic in 1918 and the Search for the Virus
that Caused It (1999), and Clone: The Road to Dolly and the Path
Ahead (1998). She has received numerous awards for her writing,
including two Howard W. Blakeslee awards from the American Heart
Association, two William Harvey awards from the Squibb Company,
and an award from the American Medical Writers Association. Her
book on the flu epidemic was a national bestseller and won the
2000 Book Award from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities.
Ms. Kolata was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in investigative reporting
in 2000.
A popular and sought after speaker on medical issues and on science
writing, Ms. Kolata has lectured and given keynote addresses at
various university and medical schools, including Princeton and
Yale Universities, New York Medical College, and Bryn Mawr College.
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