[Merrimon Lecture] Integrating A.I. Into Health Care: Ethical & Legal Challenges

The 2023 Merrimon Lecture will be presented by I. Glenn Cohen, Deputy Dean and James A. Attwood and Leslie Williams Professor of Law, Harvard Law School and Faculty Director, Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology & Bioethics.

Prof. Cohen is one of the world’s leading experts on the intersection of bioethics (sometimes also called “medical ethics”) and the law, as well as health law. He also teaches civil procedure. From Seoul to Krakow to Vancouver, Professor Cohen has spoken at legal, medical, and industry conferences around the world and his work has appeared in or been covered on PBS, NPR, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, Mother Jones, the New York Times, the New Republic, the Boston Globe, and several other media venues.

He was the youngest professor on the faculty at Harvard Law School (tenured or untenured) both when he joined the faculty in 2008 (at age 29) and when he was tenured as a full professor in 2013 (at age 34), though not the youngest in history.

Prof. Cohen’s current projects related to big data, medical AI, health information technologies, mobile health, reproduction/reproductive technology, research ethics, organ transplantation, rationing in law and medicine, health policy, FDA law, COVID-19, translational medicine, and to medical tourism – the travel of patients who are residents of one country, the “home country,” to another country, the “destination country,” for medical treatment.

He is the author of more than 200 articles and chapters and his award-winning work has appeared in leading legal (including the Stanford, Cornell, and Southern California Law Reviews), medical (including the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA), bioethics (including the American Journal of Bioethics, the Hastings Center Report), scientific (Science, Cell, Nature Reviews Genetics) and public health (the American Journal of Public Health) journals, as well as Op-Eds in the New York Times, Washington Post, New Republic, Time Magazine, and other venues.

This is an in-person event.

About the Merrimon Lecture

One of the UNC School of Medicine’s oldest and most prestigious endowed lectureships, the Merrimon Lectureship sponsors an annual event of public lectures and consultations involving a distinguished senior speaker addressing issues in the ethics and history of the health professions. The Center for Bioethics coordinates this lectureship, in collaboration with the UNC School of Medicine Dean’s Office.

The Merrimon lectureship was established by the late Dr. Louise Merrimon Perry, and inaugurated in 1966. Dr. Perry’s idea was that the lectures be open to all, but that they be concerned with the origins, traditions and history of the medical profession and of that ethical philosophy which must dominate this field of human endeavors. It was her intention that the Merrimon Lecturers be distinguished both for scientific or clinical skills and a notably humane attitude towards medicine.

Event Co-sponsored by:
UNC Center for Bioethics
UNC Center for Health Equity Research
Department of Medicine
Department of Social Medicine
School of Medicine Merrimon Lectureship