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Information is power, but whose power is it?  This year's Thomas A. Pitts Memorial Lectureship, Issues in Medical Ethics, takes an informative look at who has the power to make health care decisions, particularly in the context of the rapidly changing terrain of medical information and access of information.   In a world of medical information, easy access raises a world of ethical questions. The lectureship will be held Friday and Saturday, Sept. 15 and 16, in the Gazes Auditorium. Attendance is free to faculty, staff, residents and students, but registration is required for all attendees. To register on-line, visit <http://www.values.musc.edu> or call Debby Lassiter at 792-5278.   The conference is entitled “Power Over Information, Power to Decide: Paternalism and Autonomy in Health Care.” Outstanding lecturers from around the country review and discuss the evolution in recent decades of the autonomy-beneficence tension in health care, describe current understandings of autonomy and of beneficence in health care, and then move on to consider specific issues of decision making and access and ownership of information. These include discussions and debates on confidentiality and privacy in large databases, ownership of human tissues and organs, and how the loss of power affects health among minorities.   The second day, Saturday morning, Sept. 16, features a seminar with the Friday speakers to provide opportunities for conversation with the Pitts lecturers.   Visiting faculty for The Pitts Lectureship are: Ronald Bailey, science journalist, Charlottesville, Va. H. Tristram Engelhardt Jr. Ph.D., M.D., professor of philosophy, Rice University; professor of medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas Lawrence O. Gostin, J.D., professor of law, Georgetown University Law Center, Washington, D.C. Sherman A. James, Ph.D., John P. Kirscht Collegiate Professor; director, Center for Research on Ethnicity; chair, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor Karen Labacqz, Ph.D., Robert Gordon Sproul Professor of Theological Ethics, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, Calif. David J. Rothman, Ph.D., B. Schoenberg Professor of Social Medicine; director, Center for the Study of Society and Medicine; professor of history, Columbia University, New York, NY Alfred I. Tauber, M.D., professor of medicine; professor of philosophy; director, Center for Philosophy and History of Science, Boston University, Boston, Mass. Beverly Woodward, Ph.D., research associate, Department of Sociology, Brandeis University, Waltham, Mass.  For information, call 792-5278. Thomas Antley Pitts II, M.D., (1893-1991) served as a member of the MUSC Board of Trustees for 36 years and served as its chairman for 25 of those years. He left a substantial bequest to the Medical University to “endow a series of lectures on medical ethics.” The series has become known as the Pitts Memorial Lectureship, and has been held annually since 1993.