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Pitts Lectureship to probe life's beginning, end There’s a point where life begins and a point where it ends, but determining precisely where each point lies is highly controversial. It bears profound implications for the development of public policy, the conduct of research and the drafting of laws governing abortion and death. This year’s 11th Annual Thomas A. Pitts Memorial Lectureship, set for Sept. 10 and 11, will feature lectures and discussions on the topic, “Defining the Beginning and End of Human Life: Implications for Ethics, Policy and Law.” Robert Sade, M.D., chair of the lectureship planning committee, pointed out that “the lectureship will present an array of distinguished speakers and authors in the field of bioethics.” In addition, “we are especially pleased that we were able to recruit as a speaker Dr. William May, one of two members on the President’s Commission on Bioethics whose terms were ended by President Bush amidst controversy earlier this year.”  May will speak on the relation between bioethics and the development of public policy.  The list of nationally renowned presenters includes: James L. Bernat, M.D., professor of medicine (neurology), Dartmouth Medical School, director of the Program in Clinical Ethics at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. He is well known as an ethicist and as the nation’s leading proponent of whole brain death. David DeGrazia, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy, George Washington University and a faculty affiliate at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics. His recent scholarly focus was personal identity theory, and his current book project is Human Identity and Bioethics. George Khushf, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy, University of South Carolina, and the humanities director of the Center for Bioethics at USC. He is an editorial board member of five bioethics journals, and has written across a broad spectrum of bioethical and philosophical issues. Donald Marquis, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, University of Kansas, Lawrence. He is a seminal figure in the debates on the moral status of the fetus since he published his secular argument, “Why Abortion is Immoral,” which is still widely quoted and reprinted. William E. May, Ph.D., Cary M. Maguire Professor of Ethics Emeritus at Southern Methodist University, and a recent member of the President’s Commission on Bioethics. He is currently a fellow at the Institute of Practical Ethics and Public Life, University of Virginia. Jeff McMahan, Ph.D., professor of philosophy at Rutgers University. He works at the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research at Rutgers where his major scholarly interest is ethical issues and the extremes of life: cloning, abortion, infanticide, killing versus letting die, and brain death.  Lynn M. Morgan, Ph.D., professor of anthropology, Mount Holyoke College. Professor Morgan is a medical anthropologist whose interests include the meaning and degree of personhood of the human fetus. She is currently working on a book addressing cultural aspects of personhood at life’s beginning and end.  Bonnie Steinbock, Ph.D., professor of philosophy, University at Albany, State University of New York, and is a fellow of the Hastings Center. Her books and articles range broadly in bioethics, with emphasis on ethical problems around early development and the time of death. The lectureship is named for Thomas A. Pitts II, M.D., who 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 became known as the Pitts Memorial Lectureship, and has been held annually since 1993. The lectureship will take place in the Gazes Auditorium, and registration is required. Applications can be completed at http://www.values.musc.edu or by calling Sharon Kest at 843-792-5278.  There is no registration fee for students, staff and faculty of MUSC and the College of Charleston.     Friday, Aug. 27, 2004 Catalyst Online is published weekly, updated as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public Relations for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of South Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at 792-4107 or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to Catalyst Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to petersnd@musc.edu or catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Community Press at 849-1778.