URI Colloquium speaker to offer
a global perspective on ethics
and clinical practice in genetics
KINGSTON, R.I. — November 18, 2002 — Genetics specialist Dorothy Wertz will speak at the University of Rhode Island’s ongoing Honors Colloquium, Genetic Technology and Public Policy in the New Millennium on Tuesday, Nov. 26. Wertz’s talk, “An International Perspective on Ethics and Clinical Practice in Genetics,” will address the differing cultural views she’s encountered during her international studies of clinical genetic counselors, patients and doctors. Wertz has completed a 37-nation survey of 3,000 geneticists’ ethical views, plus the views of primary care physicians and patients in the U.S.
The talk will be held in Room 271 of the Chafee Social Science Center from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public.
Wertz, a social scientist, is a research professor of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and a senior scientist for the Division of Social Science, Ethics and Law at the Shriver Center, a research center within the UMass Medical School for Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities. Wertz also serves as an adjunct research professor of maternal and child health for the School of Public Health at Boston University.
Wertz received her Ph.D. from Harvard in 1966 and has since pursued an interest in ethical and social issues in human genetics. She has worked with the executive board of the International Federation of Human Genetics Societies and has authored numerous articles, reports, and papers.
Major sponsors for the colloquium series are URI’s Honors Program, The URI Foundation, Theta Chi Fraternity, The Providence Journal, the Rhode Island Committee for the Humanities, the Joan Irvine Smith and Athalie R. Clarke Foundation, and the URI President’s Office. Additional sponsors include URI’s Offices of the Provost and the dean of Arts and Sciences, College of Nursing, Student Entertainment Committee, the Multicultural Center, the John Hazen White Sr. Center for Ethics and Public Service, the URI Alumni Association, the Department of Communications/News Bureau and Matritech.
For more information on the Honors Colloquium please visit the Colloquium website, accessed through www.uri.edu.