Amy Bloom on love and loss, the unethical and abusive Olympic ecosystem, focusing on the political barriers to health equity
February 23, 2022
Love and Loss With Amy Bloom
Register for New Virtual Event
Bestselling author Amy Bloom’s world was altered forever when an MRI indicated that her husband Brian had Alzheimer’s disease. Together, led by Brian, Brian and Amy made the decision to travel to Switzerland to access an assisted dying process unavailable in the United States. In this discussion with Hastings Center President Mildred Solomon on March 17, Bloom will talk about her new book, In Love: A Memoir of Love and Loss, including how she and her husband approached his diagnosis and this decision. Learn more and register.
Overhauling the Doping Ecosystem The struggle for fairness & meaning
The unethical and abusive structure of Olympic training and commodification of child athletes surfaced once again during the Winter Olympics with the ordeal of Kamila Valieva, the 15-year-old Russian figure skater who tested positive for a banned drug and faltered during competition. A commentary in the Washington Post argues for an overhaul of what Hastings Center President Emeritus Thomas Murray calls the Olympic doping ecosystem—“not just coaches, trainers and doctors, but ‘sports officials, bureaucrats, grifters, and government agents and officials who benefit from the success of the athletes’.” The Post cites Murray’s recent essay in Hastings Bioethics Forum. Read the Washington Post article. Read Murray’s Hastings Bioethics Forum essay.
To Improve Health Equity, Look at Politics Takeaways from "Righting the Wrongs: Tackling Health Inequities"
Daniel Dawes, a key figure on shaping the Affordable Care Act, urged the audience at last month’s health equity summit to look upstream and focus on the political and structural barriers to health equity. These are “the systemic processes, distributing resources, administering power. These shape and hinder health equity. They create structural barriers to communities that lack power and privilege.” Dawes delivered a multipronged call to action. Read more and watch the video of his keynote address.
Upcoming Events
"We Belong to One Another: Disability and Family Making." Final event in The Hastings Center's "Art of Flourishing" series. March 14.
"Love and Loss with Amy Bloom." A discussion with bestselling author and Hastings Center President Mildred Solomon. March 17.
"Is It Possible to Have Healthy People on a Sick Planet?" Gary Cohen will present the Callahan Annual Lecture, April 19.
"Ethical Issues We Have Faced Over the Pandemic and Lessons Learned." A talk by Hastings Center President Mildred Solomon at Yale. May 11.
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