Medical Ethics Division News
October 2008 - February 2009
New Grants
Pablo Rodríguez del Pozo, MD, PhD, JD, Associate Professor of Public Health (Qatar) in the Division of Medical Ethics, along with three of his premedical students, received an Undergraduate Research Experience Program grant from the Qatar National Research Fund. The award provides funding for a 10-month study in which Dr. Rodríguez del Pozo and the students, Sanah Sadiq, Arnab Chowdhury and Abdulhadi Al Saei, will analyze public perceptions and educational resources available for children with Down Syndrome in Qatar. More about the grant.
Dr. Nicholas Schiff, Associate Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience and Public Health (Medical Ethics), received a $3.9 million McDonnell Foundation grant to fund research of recovery of consciousness after severe brain injury.
Faculty and Staff Promotions
Pablo Rodríguez del Pozo, MD, PhD, JD, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Public Health ( Qatar) in the Division of Medical Ethics. Dr. Rodríguez del Pozo completed JD and MD degrees from the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina. He went on to post-doctoral training at the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, as a Specialist in Legal and Forensic Medicine at the School of Legal Medicine. At the Universidad Complutense he also earned a Specialist in Human Rights degree and an MA degree in Bioethics. He then completed a PhD from the Universidad Carlos III in Madrid. He was hired as a faculty member in the Department of Public Health and History of Science at Universidad Computense shortly after graduating from the program, a highly unusual honor. He has held academic positions at universities and organizations in four continents, and is internationally esteemed as one of the leaders in his generation in bioethics in the Spanish-speaking world.
Dr. Rodríguez del Pozo has brought his unique multicultural perspective and sensitivity to his teaching and scholarship since becoming one of the founding faculty members of Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar in 2003. Along with Dr. Joseph Fins, he launched its ethics and humanities program and designed the undergraduate premedical curriculum. He also teaches in the Medicine, Patients and Society courses levels I, II (for which is Course Segment Director), and III (for which he is Clerkship Director) in the Qatar Medical College, and has instituted other innovative educational programs.
Wayne Shelton, PhD, MSW, has been promoted to Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics. Dr. Shelton is based at Albany Medical College, where he is Director of the Program on Ethics and Health Outcomes at the Alden March Bioethics Institute and serves extensively as a Clinical Ethics Consultant. He is also Co-Director of the Albany Medical College/Graduate College of Union University Masters Program in Bioethics. Dr. Shelton was recruited to the Weill Cornell Medical College Department of Public Health in 2007 to develop and teach a 10-session course called “The Philosophical Basis of Medical Ethics” for Division fellows and faculty and to mentor Divisional personnel. He continues to collaborate with faculty members on scholarly research and contribute to other Division educational activities.
Welcome New Faculty
Naomi Tamerin, MD, has been appointed Lecturer in Public Health (Courtesy) in the Division of Medical Ethics. Dr. Tamerin received her MD degree from New York University School of Medicine. She completed Post-Doctoral training in Pathology at NYU-Bellevue Medical Center; in Human Sexuality at the NYU School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, in Psychoanalysis at Beth Israel Hospital, and in Bioethics and Medical Humanities at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She has held academic positions as Assistant Professor of Pathology at the University of West Virginia School of Medicine, and Instructor and Lecturer in Pathology and Lecturer in Human Sexuality at NYU School of Medicine. She has also directed the Departments of Laboratory Medicine at both Hudson Valley Hospital Center in Peekskill, New York, and Julia Butterfield Hospital in Cold Spring, New York. She has also been a Consulting Bioethicist at United Hospital Medical Center in Port Chester, New York. She is currently appointed to the Medical Society of the State of New York Committee on Ethics and Organ Transplant, as well as to the Board of Health in Greenwich, Connecticut, and she is Co-Chair of the Committee on Ethics, Westchester County Medical Society. Dr. Tamerin has authored or co-authored four journal articles on palliative care, the ethics consultation process (with Dr. Joseph Fins and Dr. Elizabeth Nilson), the nephrotic syndrome, and sex therapy. In addition, she has presented many bioethics talks and regularly contributes articles and editorials to newspapers. She has taught medical ethics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and New York Medical College, and is on the faculty of the Medicine, Patients, and Society course at Weill Cornell Medical College. In the Department she works with Ds. Fins and Nilson on their research study to evaluate the clinical ethics consultation process.
Appointments and Honors
Dr. Fins Selected for Who’s Who in the World
Dr. Joseph J. Fins, Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medicine, Professor of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry, was selected for Who’s Who in the World, 2009 Edition.
Dr. Fins Appointed Member of International Panel on Ethical Issues of Deep Brain Stimulation
Dr. Fins was appointed a Member of "Deep Brain Stimulation in Psychiatry: Guidance for Responsible Research and Application." This is a three-year international project to explore ethical issues in the use of deep brain stimulation. It is hosted by the Europäische Akademie zur Erforschung von Folgen wissenschaftlich-technischer Entwicklungen in Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, Germanyand funded by the Volkswagen Foundation.
Dr. Fins was also named to the Editorial Board of the "Basic Bioethics Series" of MIT Press.
Dr. Inmaculada de Melo-Martín Wins Prize for Best Paper
An article by Inmaculada de Melo-Martín, Ph.D., M.S., Associate Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics; and her colleague Kristen Intemann, of the Department of History and Philosophy at Montana State University; has received a prize as the best paper submitted to the Annual Meeting of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. The authors will present the work at the conference in March. The paper, “How do disclosure policies fail? Let us count the ways,” was published online January 28, 2009, in The FASEB Journal.
Dr. Inmaculada de Melo-Martín Elected to Society Executive Board
Inmaculada de Melo-Martín , Ph.D., M.S. Associate Professor in the Division of Medical Ethics, was elected a member of the Executive Board for the Society for Philosophy and Technology for the years 2008-2012.
Dr. de Melo-Martín was also elected a member of the Nominating Committee of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, 2008-2010.
Lectures and Conference Presentations
Dr. Fins Panelist at Neuroethics Meeting
Dr. Joseph Fins was a panelist on a "Discusson of the Ethics of Deep Brain Stimulation," at the First Annual Meeting of the Neuroethics Society held in Washington, D.C., November 13, 2008. The event was co-sponsored by the Dana Alliance and the Neuroethics Society. The other panelists were Drs. Helen Mayberg, Philip Campbell, and Jonathan Moreno. Dr. Judy Illes moderated the discussion, which was introduced by Dr. Steven Hyman, Provost at Harvard and former Chief of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and William Safire, Chair of the Dana Foundation.
Dr. Fins Presents Two Named Lectures
Joseph J. Fins, MD, FACP, Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Medicine in Psychiatry and Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics, presented the 17th annual Wilhelm S. Albrink Memorial Lecture in Bioethics at the Center for Health Ethics and Law at West Virginia University. The title of Dr. Fins’ talk was “Minds Apart: Neuroethics and Severe Brain Injury.”
Dr. Joseph J. Fins, Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medicine, Professor of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry, gave The Sheila Hutzler Rives Memorial Lecture at the Berman Institute of Bioethics at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine on January 12, 2009. His topic was, "Neuroethics and Disorders of Consciousness: Making Sense of an Emerging Nosology." Following his lecture, Dr. Fins conducted a proseminar with the Greenwall Foundation Fellows in Bioethics on ethical issues in emerging biomedical technologies.
Drs. Joseph Fins and Nicholas Schiff Speak at Neuroethics Research Workshop in Halifax
Dr. Joseph J. Fins, Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medicine, Public Health, and Medicine in Psychiatry; and Dr. Nicholas Schiff, Associate Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience and Public Health, were among the presenters at a neuroethics research meeting focusing on deep brain stimulation (DBS) held September 26-27, 2008 in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The meeting brought together experts from Canada, the U.S., and Europe. Dr. Fins presented a pre-workshop public lecture September 25 giving a historical perspective of brain interventions, in which he pointed out the differences between 19 th century psychosurgery and DBS. During the workshop he discussed criteria for the use of DBS to treat a number of conditions, including its recent use with a patient in a minimally conscious state. Dr. Schiff, who is the patient’s treating physician, discussed the clinical aspects of the case. Read the meeting report.
Dr. Fins has given a number of other recent presentations on neuroethics. He discussed "Neuroimaging and Disorders of Consciousness" at a conference called "Neuroimaging in Traumatic Brain injury" at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio, October 31, 2008.
He presented a Grand Rounds in "Neuroethics and Disorders of Consciousness" at The Methodist Hospital in Houston, Texas, December 3, 2008.
On December 4, 2008, he gave a talk called "Who Decides?" to the New York Weill-Cornell Council.
Dr. Pablo Rodríguez del Pozo Gives Inaugural Session of Research Forum
Pablo Rodríguez del Pozo, MD, PhD, JD, Associate Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics (Qatar), presented the inaugural session of the Education City Liberal Arts and Social Sciences Research Forum this year as the representative for Weill Cornell Medical College/Qatar, this year’s series host. The Forum, founded in 2007, was designed to bring faculty members from all Education City (Doha) campuses together to discuss their teaching and research in various fields. A description of the series and the session appeared in The Peninsula newspaper.
Dr. Inmaculada de Melo-Martín Speaks at Two Recent Meetings
Inmaculada de Melo-Martín, Ph.D., M.S. Associate Professor in the Division of Medical Ethics, presented “Social Values and Evidentiary Standards: The Case of the HPV Vaccine,” with K. Intemann, at the Philosophy of Science Association 2008 Biennial Meeting in Pittsburgh, PA, November 6-9, 2008.
Dr. de Melo-Martín also gave a talk called “ Research Ethics Consultation: An Emerging Role for Bioethicists,” at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities held in Cleveland, OH, October 23-26.
Dr. Mary Simmerling is Panelist at Symposium on Organ Donation
Mary Simmerling, PhD, Assistant Dean of Research Integrity and Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics, was as a panelist at a symposium hosted by the University of Pennsylvania Law School's Journal of International Law. The event, held February 13, 2009, was titled “Organ Allocation: Donation, Sales, and Illegal Trafficking.” Its purpose was to foster discussion and highlight the debate surrounding organ allocation in the international community. The keynote address was delivered by Dr. Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics.
Dr. Victor Sidel Presents at APHA Annual Meeting
Victor Sidel, M.D., Adjunct Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics, presented a series of papers at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association in San Diego and delivered the keynote address for an International Medical Student Congress in Amsterdam. His David Rogers Colloquium presentation in November on “The Saga of Anthrax” is scheduled for presentation at a Biosecurity, Biotechnology and Global Health seminar in Princeton in the spring.
Publications
Dr. Joseph J. Fins, Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medicine, Professor of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry, was the lead author of three publications emanating from a conference he co-chaired at Stamford University in 2007 on neuroethics, neuroimaging, and disorders of consciousness:
- Fins JJ, Illes J, Bernat JL, Hirsch J, Laureys S, Murphy E and Participants of the Working Meeting on Ethics, Neuroimaging and Limited States of Consciousness. “Neuroimaging and Disorders of Consciousness: Envisioning an Ethical Research Agenda.” American Journal of Bioethics 2008;8(9): 3-12.
- Fins JJ. “Neuroethics & Neuroimaging: Moving towards Transparency.” American Journal of Bioethics 2008;8(9): 46-52.
- Fins JJ and Illes J. “Lights, Camera, Inaction? Neuroimaging and Disorders of Consciousness.” American Journal of Bioethics 2008;8(9): W1-W3
Dr. Fins was the author of “Surgical Innovation and Ethical Dilemmas: Precautions & Proximity,” The article was published in the Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine (2008;75[Supplement 6]: S7-S12.)
Dr. Fins, Oliver Fein, MD, Associate Dean of Affiliations and Professor of Clinical Medicine and Clinical Public Health, and Antonio Gotto Jr., MD, Dean of the Medical College, wrote a letter to the editor of Academic Medicine titled “Ethical Issues and Global Health.” It was published in the November 2008 issue.
Dr. Fins’ letter to the editor titled “Another View of the White Coat Ceremony” appeared in the February 2009 issue of Academic Medicine.
Dr. Fins was also the author of “Lessons from the injured brain: a bioethicist in the vineyards of neuroscience.” This article appeared in the January 2009 issue of the Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics.
Inmaculada de Melo-Martín , Ph.D., M.S. Associate Professor in the Division of Medical Ethics, was the author of an article published in the Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal (18[4] [2008]: 331-346) titled “Chimeras and Human Dignity.” The article focuses on research in which human embryonic stem cells or humanneural stem cells are transferred to nonhuman animals; it critically analyzes both critics' and supporters' claims about whether such chimera research threatens human dignity.
Dr. de Melo-Martín was also the author of two articles recently published in the American Journal of Bioethics.The first, “A Duty to Participate in Research: Does Social Context Matter?” was the Target Article in the October 2008 issue. The second, “Ethics, Embryos, and Eggs: The Need for More than Epistemic Values,” appeared in the December 2008 issue.
Fredric Pieracci, MD, a former Preventive Medicine Fellow in the Department of Public Health, was the lead author of “Prospective Analysis of Life-Sustaining Therapy Discussions in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit: A Housestaff Perspective.”(Journal of the American College of Surgeons 2008; 207[4]: 468-476.) The article’s co-authors included Division of Medical Ethics faculty members Dr. Joseph Fins, Dr. Elizabeth Nilson, Dr. Soumitra Eachempati, and Dr. Philip Barie.
Mary Simmerling, PhD, Assistant Dean of Research Integrity and Assistant Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics, co-authored a chapter in a new book entitled When Altruism Isn’t Enough: The Case for Compensating Kidney Donors. The book is edited by Sally Satel, MD, a Resident Scholar at the Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, who recently presented her ideas on this subject at a Weill Cornell Department of Public Health Grand Rounds.
Madeleine Schachter, JD, Lecturer in Public Health (Courtesy) in the Division of Medical Ethics, was the lead author of Informed consent revisited: a doctrine in the service of cancer care, published in the October 2008 issue of TheOncologist. Dr. Joseph Fins, Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medicine, Professor of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry, was the co-author. The article explores significant benefits of the informed consent doctrine for the therapeutic endeavor that go beyond protecting a patient’s decisional autonomy.
“The Health Impact of War,” a paper by Dr. Victor Sidel, Adjunct Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics, and Dr. Barry Levy, was published in the December issue of the International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion. Dr. Sidel also contributed a chapter to the International Encyclopedia of Public Health titled “Weapons of Mass Destruction.”
Media/Publicity
Dr. Joseph J. Fins, Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics and Professor of Medicine, Professor of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry, was interviewed on CNN-International's "World News" on Britain's first the use of pre-implantation genetic diagnosis to prevent brca-1 linked breast cancer on January 9, 2009.
Dr. Victor Sidel, Adjunct Professor of Public Health in the Division of Medical Ethics, was profiled in the Fall 2008 issue of Weill Cornell Medicine (“Social Studies,” pages 15-16). The article discusses Dr. Sidel’s long-term leadership in the field of Social Medicine. It also quotes Dr. J. Emilo Carrillo, Associate Professor of Clinical Public Health and Clinical Medicine, and touches on his work in community outreach and physician cultural competence.
Dr. Franklin Miller, a senior faculty member in the Department of Bioethics of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Associate Professor of Public Health (Courtesy) in the Division of Medical Ethics, was quoted in the article Half of Doctors Routinely Prescribe Placebos (The New York Times, October 24, 2008).
