About the Henry Hardy Lecture in Bioethics & Public Policy

This Series is No Longer Available

The Henry Hardy Lecture in Bioethics & Public Policy was held annually at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC). It brought together experts in bioethics, health care, science, business, law, and/or policy, to discuss current issues of interest to physicians, nurses, administrators, and other health care providers and trainees.

The lectureship was founded in 1989 by Regis A. de Silva, MD, MPA, Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Attending Physician in Cardiology at BIDMC, in collaboration with the then newly-formed Division of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School, now the Center for Bioethics. Funding was provided by an international businessman and former patient, Henry Hardy. The purpose of the lecture was to address an ongoing question: how to correlate clinical practice with a particular social, legal, cultural, economic issue or problem in how care is delivered and to suggest remedies. The lectureship became part of the hospital's medical grand rounds, attended by professional staff, faculty, and trainees from BIDMC, the Center for Bioethics, and Harvard Medical School.

Organizing Committee
  • Regis A. de Silva, MD, MPA, Chair
  • Peter Macaulay
  • Ronald Silvestri, MD
  • Lachlan Forrow, MD
  • Mark L. Zeidel, MD
  • Robert D. Truog, MD, Ex-officio
  • Christine Mitchell, RN, MS, MTS, HEC-C, Ex-officio
  • Previous Speakers

    1990 to Present
    2018Dayna Bowen Matthew, JD, 
    The William L. Matheson & Robert M. Morgenthau Distinguished Professor of Law & the F. Palmer Weber Research Professor of Civil Liberties & Human Rights at the University of Virginia School of Law.
    2017Robert Kinloch "Bob" Massie IV, M.Div, D.B.A.
    Ceres Executive Director, Global Reporting Initiative co-founder
    2016Aaron S. Kesselheim, M.D., J.D., M.P.H
    Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School,
    Faculty member in the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics in the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
    2015Clayton Christensen, DBA
    Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration Harvard Business School
    2014John E. McDonough, Dr.P.H., M.P.A. Harvard School of Public Health
    2013Lincoln Chen, MD President, Chine Medical Board
    2012Julio Frenk, MD. Harvard School of Public Health
    2011Myron E. Essex, DVM, Ph.D. Harvard School of Public Health
    2010Esther Duflo, Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
    2009Arthur Kleinman, M.D. Harvard University
    2008James Roosevelt, Jr. Tufts Health Plan
    2007Theodore R. Marmor, Ph.D. Yale University
    2006Charles Rosenberg, Ph.D. Harvard University
    2005Daniel D. Federman, M.D. Harvard Medical School
    2004Christopher Murray, M.D., D.Phil. Harvard University
    2003Helen Mountfield, Matrix Law Chambers, London, UK
    2002Margaret Somerville, J.D. McGill University, Montreal
    2001Aaron Lazare, M.D. University of Massachusetts
    2000Bernard Lown, M.D. Harvard School of Public Health
    1999Richard Lewontin, Harvard University
    1998Linda Emanuel, M.D. American Medical Association
    1997Leon Eisenberg, M.D. Harvard Medical School
    1996P. J. van der Maas, M.D. Erasmus University, Rotterdam
    1995Drummond Rennie, M.D. JAMA
    1994John R. Ball, M.D. American College of Physicians
    1993Alexander M. Capron, LL.B. University of California
    1991Jerome Kassirer, M.D. New England Journal of Medicine
    1990Edmund D. Pellegrino, M.D. Georgetown University