The West Virginia University College of Law presents
The John W. Fisher II Lecture in Law and Medicine

Who Owns Your Body?

A Conversation About Medical Research
and The Body Bazaar

12 p.m., Mon., February 13, 2012
Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom, WVU Law Center
Morgantown, W. Va.

Goodwin Headshot presented by
Professor Michele Goodwin
Everett Fraser Professor of Law &
Professor of Medicine and Public Health
University of Minnesota


Professor Goodwin unpacks the troubling contemporary domains of medical research, where the human body is sometimes mined for its biological riches. Often, she argues, patients may be none the wiser. Drawing from historical accounts, including the troubling case of Henrietta Lacks, as well as medical research on prisoners, children and other vulnerable (and unwitting participants), Goodwin explores the legacy of human experimentation in the United States as well as its contemporary contours.

The lecture considers several controversial questions, including whether there is an obligation to participate in medical research, how courts legally define ownership in the human body, and whether current legal frameworks are sufficient in providing relief for exploited patients.

Biography
Professor Michele Goodwin is the Everett Fraser Professor in Law at the University of Minnesota. She holds joint appointments at the University of Minnesota Medical School and the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. Professor Goodwin served as a Visiting Professor at the University of Chicago and as a Visiting Scholar at the University of California-Berkeley. She was honored with a Distinguished Visiting Professorship at Griffith University in Australia. Prior to law teaching, Goodwin was a Gilder-Lehrman post-doctoral fellow at Yale University.

Goodwin’s research concerns the role of law in the promotion and regulation of medicine, science, and biotechnology. She is a prolific author and internationally renowned scholar. She researches and teaches in the areas of torts, property, biotechnology, bioethics, and identity. Reviews of her work appear in the New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Publisher’s Weekly, Law and Politics Book Review, Book News, and the Library Journal, amongst other periodicals. Her editorials and commentaries appear in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Gene Watch, Christian Science Monitor, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Houston Chronicle, Chicago Sun Times, Washington Post, and Forbes Magazine. She is a columnist for the Brainstorm Section of the Chronicle of Higher Education Magazine.

She is the author/editor of several books, including Black Markets: The Supply and Demand of Human Body Parts (Cambridge University Press, 2006)(Portuguese translation 2008); Baby Markets (Cambridge University Press, 2009); The Black Body: Reading, (Re)Writing, and (Re) Imagining (University of South Africa Press, Goodwin et. al, 2009); Biotechnology and Bioethics (Lexis/Nexis Goodwin & Paris, 2012), Altruism’s Limits (Cambridge University Press 2012), and Policing The Womb (Cambridge University Press 2012). Another manuscript, in its infant stage, focuses on marriage markets and grows out of her current research funded by the Robina Foundation. That project, which has involved field research in India, the Philippines, and South Africa, examines social and political dynamics that lead to forced, underage marriages of girls and teenagers in developing countries.

Professor Goodwin is the recipient of numerous awards recognizing her contributions to the legal academy, including the Faculty Achievement Award, the Outstanding Scholarship Award, The Black Pearl Award, The Urban League Women’s History Month Honor, and the Chicago History Museum’s Pioneering Women Award, among others. Governor Paul Patton commissioned her a Colonel in 2001.

John W. Fisher II Lecture in Law and Medicine
This lecture series is made possible through the generosity of Thomas S. Clark, M.D., and Jean Clark, formerly of Morgantown, now residing in Bruceton, West Virginia. The Clark Family Lecture Series was established in 1998, with a half-million dollar pledge to fund lectures in 10 fields of study throughout WVU.

Thomas S. Clark graduated from the WVU Medical Technology program in 1967 and received his medical degree from WVU in 1975. He is medical director of Mylan Pharmaceuticals and the former CEO and owner of Clinical Pharmacologic Research, Inc. Jean Clark completed her B.A. at WVU in 1967 and earned a master’s degree in education in 1974. She is a member of the WVU Foundation, Inc., Board of Directors. The Clarks have two sons, Stuart, of Nashville, Tennessee, and Chad, who resides in Morgantown.

John W. Fisher II
John W. Fisher II became the 15th WVU Dean of Law on April 2, 1998. Among the recognitions he received, in the form of congratulations, was the John W. Fisher II Lecture in Law and Medicine.

Fisher received his B.A. in History from WVU in 1964 and his J.D. from the WVU College of Law in 1967. He joined the College of Law faculty in 1971 and has been called, “the state’s foremost authority in the field of property law,” by the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. In 1977, he received an appointment as a part-time magistrate for the U.S. District Court, and full professor tenure at the College of Law. During the 1980s, he served a four-year term as WVU Chief of Staff and advisor to the Office of the President. Prior to his 1998 deanship, he fulfilled the leadership role of interim dean three times. He is married to Susan V. Fisher, and they have a daughter, Jennifer, a son, Jay, and two grandchildren, Austin and Emily. In 2007 he was named William J. Maier, Jr. Dean and Professor of of Law.