Janet Dolgin is the Jack and Freda Dicker Distinguished Professor of Health Care Law at Hofstra University School of Law. She has a B.A. in philosophy from Barnard College, a Ph.D. in anthropology from Princeton University, and a J.D. from the Yale Law School. Her scholarly work combines insights from anthropology and legal scholarship. Her scholarly work combines insights from anthropology and legal scholarship. Professor Dolgin has written many articles, published in a variety of law reviews and other scholarly journals, and edited volumes. Much of this work has analyzed legal responses to shifts in the family (including those occasioned by developments in reproductive technology and by the "new genetics") and to shifts in the structure of health care in the U.S. and elsewhere. http://www.hofstra.edu/Academics/Law/law_dolgin.cfm

Presentation: American Ideology and Debate About Human Embryonic Stem-Cell Research

This presentation will consider the socio-cultural parameters (especially in the U.S.) of the debate about human embryonic stem-cell research. In particular, it will explore the ideological underpinnings of much of the opposition to hES cell research. Public discourse about embryonic stem cells emerged from within the debate about abortion, and has, in turn, transformed the contours of that debate. Thus, in significant part, understanding discourse about hES cell research depends on understanding the complex dimensions of the debate about abortion. The presentation will aim at delineating some of the underlying concerns at stake in public disagreements about both abortion and hES cell research. Those concerns implicate basic social axioms about gender, the dimensions of family relationships, and the scope of personhood.