Health Law Students to Honor Moreno on April 4

Jonathan D. Moreno, the David and Lyn Silfen University Professor and Professor of Medical Ethics, History, and Sociology of Science at the University of Pennsylvania, will receive the 2008 Benjamin Rush Medal for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of American health in a ceremony in the McGlothlin Courtroom at the Law School at 1 p.m. on Friday, April 4. The Benjamin Rush Laureate is chosen by the Benjamin Rush Scholars, a select group of law students who have distinguished themselves by their research in the "Health Law and Policy" class.

The public is welcome to attend.

Moreno is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies and has been a member of numerous National Academies committees. He co-chaired the Committee on Guidelines for Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research. In addition, he has served as a senior staff member for two presidential advisory committees and has given invited testimony for both houses of Congress. Moreno is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Mind Wars: Brain Research and National Defense (2006), Ethical Guidelines for Innovative Surgery (2006), and Is There an Ethicist in the House? On the Cutting Edge of Bioethics (2005). He also has published more than 250 papers, reviews, and book chapters, and is often cited and quoted by the media.

Moreno is a past president of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities and is an advisor to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Gates Foundation, and GlaxoSmithKline. He is also a Faculty Affiliate of Georgetown University's Kennedy Institute of Ethics, a Fellow of the Hastings Center and the New York Academy of Medicine, and a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.

From 1998 to 2006, Moreno held the Emily Davie and Joseph S. Kornfeld Chair in Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia.

The Benjamin Rush Medal honors Benjamin Rush (1746-1813), a physician, medical professor, and signer of the Declaration of Independence. Rush founded the first clinic in the United States devoted to medical care of the poor, wrote one of the most influential books on psychiatry of his day, and was an outspoken social reformer.

The 2008 Benjamin Rush Scholars are Carrie Boyd '08, David Bules '08, Julianna Frisch '08, Dana Hall '09, and Joey Noble '08.

For more information, please contact Professor Donald A. Tortorice at 757/221-7638 (datort@wm.edu)