Dennis Cooley, professor of philosophy and ethics and director of the Northern Plains Ethics Institute at NDSU, has been invited to the National Bioethics Center's Public Health Ethics Intensive Course, scheduled for March 24-27. Cooley is set to give a keynote plenary talk addressing the topic, "Census 2020.”

The theme for the course is "Ethics and Vulnerability: The U.S. Constitution" It will focus on bioethics, public health ethics and health disparity issues related to social justice. The theme alludes to synergy between ethics, law, the U.S. Constitution and the need to focus on the major issues affecting the lived experiences of susceptible populations.

The event is one of three activities held during the 23rd year of commemorating the 1997 presidential apology for the U.S. Public Health Service Syphilis Study at Tuskegee. The study was one of the most egregious investigations in human subjects research and health care. By Executive Order, President Clinton mandated that the Department of Health and Human Services fund Tuskegee University in Alabama to establish a bioethics center to ensure no similar study would ever occur.

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