Medical Law and Ethics in the Media Spotlight

MONDAY 8 NOVEMBER - TUESDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2010

Conference

Convenors: Dr Amel Alghrani, Professor Margaret Brazier, Dr John Coggon, Dr Amy Ford, Professor Thomas Gibbons, Mr John Gray, Dr Muireann Quigley

Conference Organisers: Ms Yan Yan Leung, Mrs Betty McGrath

Medical law and ethics rarely leave the media spotlight. Controversy surrounds the regulation of scientific advances, limits to freedoms at the start and end of life, and access to therapies. Practice, policy, and public willingness to engage in public health measures such as the MMR vaccination programme are all vulnerable to the freedom of the press and the people’s ‘right to know’.

In this conference (convened by the Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, University of Manchester), academic leaders and key public figures will offer crucial evaluation of the role, effect, and responsibilities of the media in regard to these complex, compelling, ethico-legal issues that contemporary society increasingly faces.

The conference will provide paper presentations and panel discussions, and audience participation will be encouraged.

Participants

Dr Iain Brassington, Professor Margaret Brazier, Professor Thomas Gibbons, Baroness Susan Greenfield, Dr Richard Horton, Professor Sir Ian Kennedy FBA, Dr Elizabeth Pisani, Mr Geoffrey Robertson QC, Dr Jackie Scully, Professor Julie Stone, Baroness Mary Warnock FBA, Baroness Deech, Dr Evan Harris, Dr Peter Saunders and Dr Ed Sykes.

Further details and the full programme are available at the conference website http://www.manchester.ac.uk/medlawethicsandmedia//

The conference will also include the 2010 Isaiah Berlin Lecture which will delivered by Professor Sir Ian Kennedy FBA: ‘Working With the Media: A View from the Frontline’.

Registration

There is an attendance fee of £60 (with limited subsidised places for postgraduate students of £40, and two student bursaries). Registration is essential: contact betty.mcgrath@manchester.ac.uk, 0161 275 3473

Centre for Social Ethics and Policy, University of Manchester