The Dean's Lecture Series 2002-2003

Alexander Ming Fisher Lecture

The Alexander Ming Fisher Memorial Lecture on Death and Dying was established in the early 1970s by E. Douglas Southwick to commemorate the life of Alexander Ming Fisher, M.D., a graduate of Columbia University, and to institute a yearly lecture series on the topics of death and dying. Since 1974, Alexander Ming Fisher lecturers have explored a wide variety of issues under the auspices of this event- including family care in terminal illness, death and public policy, the impact of AIDS on the practice of medicine, physician-assisted suicide, Medicare and terminal illness, and genetic engineering and the prolonging of life.

PAST ALEXANDER MING FISHER LECTURERS

1974 - Cicely Saunders, O.B.E., M.R.C.P., medical director, St. Christopher's Hospice, London, England

1975 - Colin Murray Parkes, M.D., Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, London, England

1976 - Jeanne Quint Benoliel, R.D., D.N.Sc., professor and chairman, University of Washington School of Nursing

1977 - Robert Kastenbaum, Ph.D., professor of psychology, University of Massachusetts

1978 - Edwin Schneidman, Ph.D., professor of thanatology, Neuropsychiatric Institute, Unversity of California at Los Angeles

1979 - Leon Kass, M.D., Henry R. Luce Professor of Human Biology, University of Chicago

1980 - Raymond S. Duff, M.D., professor of pediatrics, Yale University

1981 - Alexander M. Capron, L.L.B., executive director, President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine and Biomedical and Behavioral Research

1983 - Robert Jay Lifton, M.D., Foundations' Fund Research Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University

1984 - Francis D. Moore, M.D., Mosely Professor Emeritus of Surgery, Harvard University

1985 - Ida M. Martinson, R.N., Ph.D., Health Care Nursing, School of Nursing, University of California at San Francisco

1986 - Rev. John Parris, professor of social ethics, Holy Cross College; adjunct professor of medicine, University of Massachusetts

1987 - Merle Sande, M.D., professor of medicine, University of California at San Francisco; chief, medical service, San Francisco General Hospital

1988 - Samuel O. Thier, president, Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences

1989 - Edwin Cassem, M.D., acting chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital

1990 - Rabbi Moses Tendler, Rabbi Isaac and Bella Tendler Professor of Medical Ethics, Yeshiva University

1991 - Kenneth Ryan, M.D., professor and chairman, Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology, Brigham and Women's Hospital

1992 - H. Tristram Englehardt, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., professor of medicine and philosophy, Center for Ethics, Medicine and Public Issues, Baylor College of Medicine

1993 - Christine K. Cassel, M.D., F.A.C.P., professor of medicine and public policy studies, chief, Section of General Internal Medicine, University of Chicago Medical Center

1994 - George Soros, founder and chairman, the Soros Foundation

1995 - Shermin B. Juland, M.D., clinical professor of surgery, Yale University

1996 - Daniel Callahan, Ph.D., director of international programs, the Hastings Center

1997 - Bruce C. Vladeck, Ph.D., professor of health policy, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine

1998 - Joanne Lynn, M.D., director, Center to Improve the Care of the Dying; professor of health care science, George Washington University School of Medicine

2000 - Neil Gillman, Ph.D., Aaron Rabinowitz & Simon H. Rifkind Professor of Jewish Philosophy, Jewish Theological Seminary of America; Daniel Callahan, Ph.D., director of international programs, the Hastings Center

2001 - Nancy S. Wexler, M.D., Higgins Professor of Neuropsychology, College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University