Established in 1917, The Gay Lecture has been given by many of the nation’s most influential physicians, scientists, researchers, and social observers, including Erich Fromm, Felix Frankfurter, Margaret Mead, Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, E.O. Wilson, and Joshua Lederberg.  Recent Gay Lectures have been given by Paul R. Krugman, Nicholas D. Kristof, and Donald M. Berwick.

Prior to his arrival at Harvard, Dr. Brock was Senior Scientist and a member of the Department of Clinical Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. Until July 2002, he was Charles C. Tillinghast, Jr. University Professor, Professor of Philosophy and Biomedical Ethics, and Director of the Center for Biomedical Ethics at Brown University. He served as staff philosopher on the President’s Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine in 1981 to 1982, and, in 1993, was a member of the Ethics Working Group of the Clinton Task Force on National Health Reform. He has been a consultant in biomedical ethics and health policy to numerous national and international bodies, including the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress, the Institute of Medicine, the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, and the World Health Organization.

Dr. Brock is the author of more than 150 articles in bioethics and in moral and political philosophy, as well as several books: Deciding for Others: The Ethics of Surrogate Decision Making (with Allen E. Buchanan), Life and Death: Philosophical Essays in Biomedical Ethics, and From Chance to Choice: Genetics and Justice (with Allen Buchanan, Norman Daniels and Daniel Wikler).

The Gay Lecture will be delivered at 4:00 p.m. at the Harvard Medical School’s Carl Walter Amphitheater.  This lecture is free and open to the public, but registration is required at dme@hms.harvard.edu.

For information, please contact:
Susan Gilbert, public affairs and communications manager
gilberts@thehastingscenter.org
845-424-4040 x 244