The Invisible Costs of Saving a Life | Bioethics Grand Rounds

Please join the Bioethics and Humanities department for a Bioethics Grand Rounds presentation by Katherine E. Standefer, MFA: The Invisible Costs of Saving a Life.

In this presentation, Standefer will unfold some of the complex ethical supply chain considerations relevant to manufacturing medical technologies, drawing on the research from her book Lightning Flowers, which attempts to trace the origin of her own implanted cardiac defibrillator. The presentation will explore topics like conflict minerals, global forest conservation, and the displacement of indigenous people, helping the audience reckon with the impacts of our resource-oblivious medical system and consider the potential of technology reuse and resource recycling.

Objectives:

• Describe the social and environmental ethical issues embedded in medical technology supply chains
• Underline the resource-obliviousness of our current medical system
• Identify strategies for reducing resource waste through clinical decisions, the U.S.'s regulatory landscape, and med tech company policies