WHO: Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at Penn; Frederick Dickinson, Penn associate professor of history; Eric Feldman, Penn assistant professor of law; Renee Fox, Penn professor emerita of sociology; G.Cameron Hurst, Penn professor of Japanese and Korean studies; William LaFleur, Penn professor of Japanese studies; M. Susan Lindee, Penn professor of sociology; Professors from Japan, Germany and the United States

WHAT: "Going Too Far: Rationalizing Unethical Medical Research in Japan, Germany and the United States, An International Conference"

WHERE: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (See link below.)

WHEN: April 28-May 1, 2004

What do some of the most gruesome experiments of the 20th century have to teach us in the 21st century as we go forward, assuming that human "progress" now lies in the domain of human biology and biotechnology? Are the biomedical research programs of today repeating, even if only in piecemeal fashion, the crimes of the past?

The conference, co-hosted by the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and the Center for East Asian Studies of Penn School of Arts and Sciences, brings together experts from Japan, Germany and the United States to address infamous work in medicine past, including Japanese vivisection of human "logs" more than 50 years ago, the experiments of Nazi doctors in Europe and the U.S. Public Health Service Tuskegee syphilis experiments.  

A full schedule of presenters is available at Bioethics.upenn.edu/goingtoofar/ConferenceSchedule.html

Editor Note: For specific locations of lectures and to reserve a space to cover the conference, please call either Rosann Giordano-Thompson at 215-349-5964 or Jacquie Posey at 215-898-6460.