Hosted by the HMS Center for Bioethics
Tuberculosis: The Social Disease
John Green will discuss the social and political structures that allow tuberculosis to continue killing over a million people each year, even though the disease has been curable since the 1950s. What does it mean to live in such a world, where we have the power to alleviate suffering but choose not to? And how might we choose a different world? Green will also discuss his journey from writing young adult novels to writing about tuberculosis, and the moral imperatives he sees in creating better and more inclusive systems to make quality health care available to all people.
As we look toward new models of global health care delivery and resource distribution, Green hopes that reflecting on tuberculosis can be a window into understanding both healthcare inequity and a better shared future for our species.
Location
Tosteson Medical Education Center (TMEC)
4 p.m. Reception (Atrium, second floor)
5 p.m. Lecture (Amphitheater)
260 Longwood Avenue
Boston, Massachusetts
John Green is the award-winning, #1 bestselling author of books including “Looking for Alaska,” “The Fault in Our Stars,” “Turtles All the Way Down,” “The Anthropocene Reviewed,” and “Everything is Tuberculosis.” With his brother, Hank, John has co-created many online video projects, including Vlogbrothers and the educational channel Crash Course. John serves on the board of trustees for the global health nonprofit Partners In Health and spoke at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on the Fight to End Tuberculosis. John lives with his family in Indianapolis.
The George W. Gay Lecture is the oldest endowed lectureship at Harvard Medical School, and quite possibly the oldest medical ethics lectureship in the United States. The lectureship was established in 1917 by a $1,000 gift from Dr. George Washington Gay, an 1868 graduate of Harvard Medical School. Gay gave Harvard the fund to provide an annual income to support lectures “to the advanced, or graduating classes in the Medical School upon Medical Ethics, and upon wise and proper methods of conducting the business of physicians, as relates to fees, collections, investments, etc.” The Gay Lectureship perpetuates his deep concern for the welfare of his patients and his appreciation of the constantly arising social and economic forces that impinge on medical care.