Lecture honors Connor
Jennifer Redman
Issue date: 2/4/10 Section: News
The seventh annual program honoring former UTC professor of English, George C. Connor was held Jan. 31, and featured guest speaker Dr. Larry Churchill.
Dr. Churchill is the Ann Geddes Stahlman Professor of Medical Ethics in the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Churchill's lecture topic was "What is really at stake in Healthcare Reform?"
Churchill began his lecture by saying there is a tremendous amount of disinformation about the healthcare system. More than 52 percent of under-insured adults in the United States reported going without care due to costs and more than 45,000 premature deaths of people uninsured occur annually.
"Poverty means poor health," Churchill said. "Poor health over a long period of time often unfortunately leads to poverty."
Churchill said there is an idea in American society that we have the best health care system in the world which leads to a tremendous "rescue impulse" and results in excess and deprivation.
"The right system is the one that works for its country depending on the cultural disposition," Churchill said. "Every system has it's problems, no question about it."
What is really at stake concerns both ethics and economics, Churchill said. Ethics in our national identity and economics in the long-term health of the economy and the nation as a whole.
Churchill said he thinks we need to attempt to curb our appetite for technology, assume greater responsibility for our own health and recognize limits on what we can actually afford.
"I don't know if anything will happen," Churchill said. "My greatest fear is that nothing will happen. I believe if we at least do something, we can build on it."
Dr. Verbie Prevost, head of the English department and Connor Professor of American Literature, and members of the Connor Society decide on who to invite as the speaker each year for this event.
"We try to have a variety of speakers in the areas of interest of George Connor," Prevost said. "He was a very civic and ethically minded man."
Even with weather issues, Prevost said she was very excited about the diversity of the audience.
"I was really pleased with the crowd and the approach that Dr. Churchill took," Prevost said. "He is not saying he has a solution, but that there are many options. He makes us look at things we do not think about, especially the ethics involved."
Dr. Aaron Shaheen, a professor in the English department, said he wanted to show support for the department by attending the lecture and be able to hear a speaker of Churchill's caliber who is informed so well by virtue of his profession.
"He reaffirmed in my mind the need [for] something to be done," Shaheen said. "Showing how unstable the current system is even for those who are able to have good health insurance and especially how difficult it is for people who cannot get coverage just shows that something needs to change."
Dr. Churchill is the Ann Geddes Stahlman Professor of Medical Ethics in the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Churchill's lecture topic was "What is really at stake in Healthcare Reform?"
Churchill began his lecture by saying there is a tremendous amount of disinformation about the healthcare system. More than 52 percent of under-insured adults in the United States reported going without care due to costs and more than 45,000 premature deaths of people uninsured occur annually.
"Poverty means poor health," Churchill said. "Poor health over a long period of time often unfortunately leads to poverty."
Churchill said there is an idea in American society that we have the best health care system in the world which leads to a tremendous "rescue impulse" and results in excess and deprivation.
"The right system is the one that works for its country depending on the cultural disposition," Churchill said. "Every system has it's problems, no question about it."
What is really at stake concerns both ethics and economics, Churchill said. Ethics in our national identity and economics in the long-term health of the economy and the nation as a whole.
Churchill said he thinks we need to attempt to curb our appetite for technology, assume greater responsibility for our own health and recognize limits on what we can actually afford.
"I don't know if anything will happen," Churchill said. "My greatest fear is that nothing will happen. I believe if we at least do something, we can build on it."
Dr. Verbie Prevost, head of the English department and Connor Professor of American Literature, and members of the Connor Society decide on who to invite as the speaker each year for this event.
"We try to have a variety of speakers in the areas of interest of George Connor," Prevost said. "He was a very civic and ethically minded man."
Even with weather issues, Prevost said she was very excited about the diversity of the audience.
"I was really pleased with the crowd and the approach that Dr. Churchill took," Prevost said. "He is not saying he has a solution, but that there are many options. He makes us look at things we do not think about, especially the ethics involved."
Dr. Aaron Shaheen, a professor in the English department, said he wanted to show support for the department by attending the lecture and be able to hear a speaker of Churchill's caliber who is informed so well by virtue of his profession.
"He reaffirmed in my mind the need [for] something to be done," Shaheen said. "Showing how unstable the current system is even for those who are able to have good health insurance and especially how difficult it is for people who cannot get coverage just shows that something needs to change."
