and
THE 1995 WALKER PERCY CONFERENCE
October 20-22, 1995
University of Chicago
Biological Sciences Learning Center
924 E. 57th Street, Room 115
sponsored by
THE MACLEAN CENTER FOR
CLINICAL MEDICAL ETHICS
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
DEPARTMENT OF MEDICINE
DIVISION OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
In 1993, for the third consecutive year, Deans of American medical schools recognized the medical ethics program at the University of Chicago as the #1 medical school program in the United States. The MacLean conference highlights two distinctive aspects of the Chicago program - fellowship training and clinical ethics research. Together, these two probably account for the Center's strong national reputation.
[Publisher's note--The 1995 Walker Percy Conference was the first day of the three day conference; the preceding is an excerpt as written in the conference's promotional materials.]
October 20, 1995 - University of Chicago Hospital. 5841 S. Maryland Ave., Dora De Lee Auditorium
The Conference's Purpose
The purpose of this conference is to examine Walker Percy as a physician, philosopher and novelist. Percy came from an illustrious Southern family, completed medical school at Columbia University, and contracted tuberculosis while completing an internship at Bellevue Hospital. During a stay at the famous TB sanitarium at Saranac, he started writing. For the next thirty years, he produced numerous works of fiction and philosophy. In his writings, Percy examines the connections between medicine, morality and religious thought in twentieth century America. In many of his books, the main character is a physician. Political and philosophic problems are often presented as diagnostic dilemmas or dilemmas about the proper treatment for moral or spiritual malaise. By using medical metaphors, Percy illustrates some of the tensions in models of thinking which see physicians as having special moral expertise, or the medical profession as deserving special moral sanctions.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS: 1995 WALKER PERCY CONFERENCE
9:05 Welcome Mark Siegler and Strachan Donnely
9:10 Introduction John Lantos
9:20 Percy: Reluctant Physician Jay Tolson
10:00 Of Poetry and Cardiology John Stone
10:40 Break
10:50 Prozac and the Existential Novel: Two Therapies Carl Elliot
11:35 Stories, Case Histories, and Parables Martha Montello
12:20 Lunch
1:30 Stories of Surgery Richard Selzer
2:15 Stories of General Practice David Schiedermayer
3:00 Literature and Medical Education Kathryn Montgomery Hunter
3:45 Break - prepare to be "Moviegoers"
4:00 Ross McElwee will screen his film "Time Indefinite" (75 mins.)
6:00 Remarks by Ross McElwee
6:15 Concluding Remarks John Lantos