Georgetown University Medical Center

Harvey endowed Lectureship

Section: Harvey Endowed Lectureship

March 3, 2003 (Inaugural Lecture):

Godfried Danneels
Roman Catholic Cardinal of of Brussels, Belgium
Jack Mahoney, SJ
Lauriston Centre for Contemporary Belief &Action Edinburg Scotland
Topic: Challenges to the Culture of Life: Ethics and Science in Dialogue.

March 24, 2004

CardinalFrancis George, OMI
Archbishop of Chicago
Topic:Shaping the Public Conversation:
The Challenge of Bioethics inPublic Policy.

October 25, 2005

Henk ten Have, MD, PhD
 Director, Division of Ethics of Science and Technology, UNESCO
Topic: International Bioethics: Challenges and Opportunities

February 21, 2007

Christine K. Cassel, MD, MACP
 President and CEO of the American Board of Internal Medicine
Topic: Medicare Matters: Is a Social Contract Possible in Health Care?

February 13, 2008

Leon R. Kass, MD, PhD
Hertog Fellow in Social Thought, American Enterprise Institue
Topic: Taking Care: Ethical Caregiving in our Aging Society

Georgetown University created an endowed lectureship in Health Care Ethics as a permanent tribute to Dr. Harvey's pursuit of excellence in medicine, health care reform and ethics. Dr. Harvey is revered by family, friends, patients, colleagues, and students for his human goodness, clinical excellence, wise counsel, compassionate and faithful care, and full-hearted and generous service. In today's market driven health care environment, the legacy of Dr. Harvey's devotion to his patients and their families is a constant exhortation to society, health care institutions, health care professionals, and organizations to find new and better ways to minister to the sick, and in particular, to the most vulnerable and marginalized of our sick.

Georgetown University is recognized as a world-renowned leader in the area of ethics education for health care professionals, educators, policy makers, and the public. With the endowment the Harvey Lectureship will allow Georgetown University Medical Center to recruit renowned ethicists to the Center for Clinical Bioethics to address practicing clinicians, students in the health professions, and the broader public and to stimulate moral reflection, dialogue, and action.

Dr. Harvey has long been a proponent of academic medical centers and the health care and education they provide. He served on the medical faculty at John Hopkins University for 20 years, rising to the rank of Professor, before beginning his 27 years of practicing and teaching medicine at Georgetown University. At present he is gravely concerned about the financial crises afflicting academic health centers throughout the United States. Dwindling financial resources in these centers are making it more difficult to fund both the clinical and ethical education that culminates in skilled and responsible clinicians. It is imperative that we find the means to dedicate time and space to ethical reflection, dialogue, and action in academic medical centers. This lectureship will become a centerpiece in Georgetown University's commitment to provide leadership in this arena. Literally at stake are the integrity and dignity of the human person and the family unit, the primacy of the healing relationship in models of health care delivery, medicine and nursing understood as vocational callings, care for the most vulnerable members of our society, and the public's ability to trust health care professionals, institutions and society to meet health needs.

The John Collins Harvey Endowed Lectureship in Health Care Ethics communicates the commitment and permanent importance of this field of study at the Georgetown University Medical Center, and rightly honors Dr. Harvey for his lifetime of untiring and compassionate service.

For more information on making a gift to the John Collins Harvey Lectureship in Health Care Ethics, please contact Carol Taylor,RN, PhD, at (202)687-4783 or write:

The Center for Clinical Bioethics
Georgetown University
Box 571409
Washington, DC 20057-1409