Visiting Prof to Present Medical Ethics Lecture Series

Distinguished medical anthropologist Margaret Lock, who is visiting Smith this fall as the William Allan Neilson Professor in Anthropology, will give a series of public lectures designed to shed some light on one of today's most hotly debated topics: medical ethics.

Lock, a faculty member in the social studies of medicine department at McGill University in Montréal, will present four lectures throughout the term in a series titled "An Economy of Bodies: Recycling and Remodeling Through Biomedical Technologies."

The first lecture, "Twice Dead: Living Cadavers and Organ Donation," will take place at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 28, in Wright Hall Auditorium. A reception will follow in Wright Hall Common Room.

Lock, whose most recent work has focused on the Human Genome Project and on organ transplantation, particularly in Japan, has authored several books and articles on the anthropology of medicine and the body. Her book, "Encounters with Aging: Mythologies of Menopause in Japan and North America," won the prestigious Eileen Basker Memorial Award from the Society for Medical Anthropology. Lock is also the co-author, with Nancy Scheper-Hughes, of three essays that have had considerable impact on her field: "Speaking Truth to Illness: Metaphors, Reification, and a Pedagogy for Patients"; "The Mindful Body: A Prolegomenon to Future Work in Medical Anthropology"; and "A Critical-Interpretive Approach in Medical Anthropology: Rituals and Routines of Discipline and Dissent."

Lock will deliver three more public lectures in the series: "Rethinking the Normal Through New Genetics," Oct. 27; "Human Diversity and the Moral Economy of the Cells and Tissues," Nov. 16; and "Biopolitics, GM Foods and GM People," Dec. 7. All lectures take place at 8 p.m. in Wright Hall Auditorium with a reception following in Wright Hall Common Room. All are free and wheel-chair accessible.

September 17, 1999