In 1981, under the auspices of the MacLean Center, Mark Siegler and Richard Epstein organized a yearlong interdisciplinary seminar series on Bad Outcomes after Medical Intervention. The success of that initial seminar program demonstrated that there was great interest at the University of Chicago in creating a sustainable interdisciplinary forum to discuss health-related subjects with colleagues from across campus. Since 1981, the MacLean Center has sponsored an annual lecture series that has examined the ethical aspects of one key health-related issue each year. Previous topics have included: Ethical Issues in Violence, Trauma, and Trauma Surgery, Organ Transplantation, Pediatric Ethics, End-of-Life Care, Global Health, Health Care Disparities, Medical Professionalism, Confidentiality, and Pharmaceutical Innovation and Regulation.
Please visit The MacLean Center YouTube Channel to view recordings of past lectures.
View the brochure for the 2022-2023 Lecture Series here.
The 2022-2023 lecture series is co-sponsored by the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics and the Bucksbaum Institute for Clinical Excellence. The theme is "Gender Equity & Ethics".
After 173 years following the first woman receiving a medical degree (1849) and five years since medical school enrollments achieved gender parity (2017), women and intersectional physicians have still not acquired gender equity in medicine. Over the years, the MacLean Center has hosted a series of superb lectures as a venue to explore current and historical medical advancements. The theme for the 2022-2023 41st Annual MacLean Center Public Lecture Series is “Gender Equity and Ethics.” Planned by Dr. Mark Siegler, Director of the Bucksbaum Institute, Dr. Peter Angelos, Director of the MacLean Center, Vineet Arora, Dean for Medical Education, and Dr. Julie Oyler, Chair of the Department of Medicine Women’s Committee. This year’s seminar will bring together women, allies, and other scholars from throughout the U.S. to review how gender equity has transformed the face of medicine and uncover where work still needs to be done. The specific themes we hope to develop over the course of this series will be: professional development including leadership, mentorship and sponsorship, gender equity including salary equity, promotion and academic advancement, and the intersectional experience in medicine from personal and professional burnout to finding a personal and professional balance. We hope to show how far gender equity has come, and we will demonstrate how far gender equity still has to go. We are eager for you to join us in thoughtful discussion as we study and learn from top scholars in gender equity. We can think of no better tribute to four decades of the MacLean Center’s work to elevate women and their allies as we look ahead to the future of gender equity in medicine and ethics.