FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dann Hayes, Director of Media Relations, 641-269-4834;
Wayne Moyer, Director of Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs, International Relations, and Human Rights at 641-269-3177

February 26, 2002

Dr. Joseph J. Fins, Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, at Grinnell College

GRINNELL, Iowa -Dr. Joseph J. Fins, Woodrow Wilson Visiting Fellow, will be at Grinnell College from Tuesday, March 5 to Thursday, March 7, speaking on end-of-life care and medical ethics. Dr. Fins is Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics, Departments of Public Health and Medicine/Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Professor of Medicine in Psychiatry at Weill Medical College, Cornell University. His visit is sponsored by the Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs, International Relations, and Human Rights.

On Tuesday, March 5, in the Forum South Lounge at 8 p.m., Dr. Fins will give a lecture, "Medical Ethics: A Historical Perspective. There will be an informal discussion on careers in health care professions, Wednesday, March 6 at 4:15 p.m. in the Forum Coffeehouse. A talk on "Improving End-of-Life Care: Patients, Politics and Palliation will be Thursday, March 7, at 8 p.m., in the Forum South Lounge.

President Clinton appointed Dr. Fins to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy in July 2000.

Dr. Fins teaches medicine and clinical ethics to Cornell medical students and house staff at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. At the Hastings Center, he has participated on projects on the doctor-patient relationship, decisions near the end of life, the Human Genome, and the relationship of medicine and the law.

Published work by Dr. Fins includes articles on the allocation of health care resources, health care reform, economics and medicine, managed care, end-of-life decisions, palliative care, futility, advance directives, the doctor-patient relationship, post-graduate medical education, physician assisted suicide, brain death, ecosystem health, medical ethics in a pluralistic society, and clinical pragmatism as a method of moral problem solving for medicine.