Disability, Bioethics and HIV-Positive Persons

Examining how the Americans with Disabilities Act has impacted the treatment of LGBTQI individuals

Lance Wahlert, professor and expert in bioethics, will discuss ways in which disability is defined, specifically as it pertains to HIV-positive persons and the LGBTQI community, during a lecture at Dickinson. The talk, “Disability Studies and Contemporary Bioethics for HIV-Positive Persons,” will be held Wednesday, March 23, at 7 p.m. in the Stern Center Great Room.

Wahlert will discuss the enduring historical links between HIV and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex (LGBTQI) community that contribute to the continued view of LGBTQI persons as medically abnormal. He will consider how the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act impacted LGBTQI medical ethics and how socio-economic and socio-political, rather than anatomical, definitions of disability may be more appropriate indicators. Wahlert will explain how LGBTQI individuals face challenges such as unequal access to healthcare and health insurance, heteronormative sex education and exclusion from blood donation and clinical trials.

Wahlert is an assistant professor of medical ethics and health policy and director of the Masters in Bioethics (MBE) program in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He also serves as a core research and teaching faculty member in the department of gender, sexuality and women’s studies and is the director of the Project on Bioethics, Sexuality and Gender Identity, which focuses on the intersections of LGBTQI issues and medical ethics. His research interests include clinical ethics, narrative medicine, disability theory and the historiographical legacy of healthcare for LGBTQI persons. Wahlert has published articles in Bioethics, the American Journal of Bioethics and the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine, among others.

The event is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues and co-sponsored by the departments of American studies, women’s, gender & sexuality studies, biology and the health studies certificate program. It is the third event in the Clarke Forum’s 2016 Spring Semester Theme, “Disability.”

Learn more

• Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues
• Department of American Studies
• Department of Women’s Gender & Sexuality Studies
• Department of Biology
• Health Studies Certificate Program
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Published March 17, 2016