CSUN Bioethicist Is Representing U.S.

A Cal State Northridge professor and bioethicist is representing the United States at a weeklong convention on medical ethics in Geneva, beginning today.

Miriam Cotler, chairwoman of the CSUN Health Sciences Department, joins five other health experts from Europe, Asia and Africa in discussion about the integration of medical ethics into the curriculum of medical schools.

Cotler is a member of the steering committee of the International Project for Medical Ethics Education. The group works toward consensus on some of the most pressing ethical concerns facing the medical industry, discussing how these issues should be addressed at schools and organizations throughout the world.

At the conclusion of the Geneva conference, the delegates will take their recommendations to the International Center for Health Law and Ethics at Israel’s Haifa University.

Cotler was named to the steering committee following her participation in a U.N.-sponsored international convention held in Israel in February on the teaching of medical ethics. According to campus spokeswoman Helga Newman, Cotler and the other five steering committee members were selected from delegates from 150 countries at the Israeli conference.

Cotler has been teaching medical ethics at CSUN since 1986. She is a bioethics consultant to several Valley hospitals, including Northridge Hospital Medical Center, and co-chairs the Los Angeles County Bar Assn.’s Bioethics Committee.