The Center for Bioethics and Humanities at CU Anschutz Medical Campus and the Program in Jewish Studies at CU Boulder present a public lecture titled “Medicine & Morality in Times of War” with Professor Len Rubenstein and Dr. Zaher Sahloul as part of the 2019 Holocaust Genocide and Contemporary Bioethics Program. This lecture will take place on the CU campus on Monday, April 29, 2019 from 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm in the Eaton Humanities Building, Room 250, 1610 Pleasant Street, Boulder, CO 80302.

Nearly 80 years after German physicians and other health professionals carried out some of the most heinous Nazi war crimes, health professionals today continue to practice during times of war and political conflict. While some work on behalf of authoritarian dictatorial governments to inflict harm, many others work to protect human rights and to treat soldiers and civilians with dignity and respect, even in the most extreme conditions imaginable. These latter health professionals – whether they recognize it or not – have absorbed critical lessons from the Holocaust about the necessary roles of health professionals in wartime and what that means for society today, both in zones of conflict and for refugees who have fled their homelands searching for a peaceful existence in foreign lands.

RSVP for this free event online!

Additional programs will be held at the Anschutz Medical, Colorado Springs, and Downtown campuses.

Len Rubenstein, JD, from Johns Hopkins University, is a lawyer and the former Executive Director and President of Physicians for Human Rights, an organization that carries our forensic documentation of war crimes and advocates for the protection of health workers in war zones. Professor Rubenstein has broad knowledge about the origins of human rights laws and the laws of war that arose out of the experiences in WWII.  

Zaher Sahloul, MD, is a critical care specialist at Christ Advocate Medical Center in Chicago and the immediate past president of and a senior advisor to the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), a humanitarian and advocacy organization that provides medical relief to Syrians and Syrian refugees. Dr. Sahloul is the founder of the American Relief Coalition for Syria, a coalition of 14 US-based humanitarian organizations working in Syria. He also is a former medical school classmate of Bashar al-Alssad.

This event is hosted by the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at CU Anschutz Medical Campus and the Program in Jewish Studies at CU Boulder. The 2019 Holocaust Genocide and Contemporary Bioethics Program is supported by the MB Glassman Foundation, Jewish Colorado, and the founding sponsor, the William S. Silvers, MD Endowment.

Learn more about “Medicine & Morality in Times of War” at Colorado.edu/JewishStudies.