Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Tamra Lysaght, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

ABSTRACT

The practitioner of military medicine has dual loyalties that are grounded in the dual obligations inherent to these twin-roles: physician and soldier. While the topic of dual loyalty has been discussed within military medicine for some time, the contemporary intellectual focus on this issue has ignored larger institutional and programmatic issues that contribute to the problem. This work seeks to enrich the dual-loyalties debate by grounding it in historical and contemporary case-study analysis. Specifically examining the medical civilian assistance programs within the U.S. military. These programs represent the use of medicine within the military for strategic goals. Within these programs, a physician is expected to meet his obligation to his role as a soldier while also practicing medicine. These programs involve obligations inherent in both roles of the physician-soldier and thusly they serve as excellent exemplars for the problem of dual loyalties at an institutional or programmatic level.

Within the U.S. military, these programs were formalized in during the Vietnam War under the name Medical Civic Action Program (MEDCAP). Since that time, they have been expanded and used around the globe. Today, different national militaries (including almost every European nation) are beginning using the MEDCAP model. Unfortunately, they are confronting the same ethical dilemmas that the U.S. military has struggled with.

Historico-ethical analysis will examine both the positive power and negative impact of these programs, asking the questions: Should medicine be instrumentalized in this way? Were these programs successful? If so, were they medically successful or strategically successful? Moreover, what can contemporary programs learn from the programs of the past?

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Sheena M. Eagan Chamberlin  received her PhD in the medical humanities from the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Her MPH was awarded from the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. Sheena’s areas of study include military medicine, ethics, philosophy of medicine, public health ethics, history of medicine, mind body medicine, military medical history, and humanism/the humanities, among others. She has presented academic papers at conferences in the humanities, medical ethics and military medicine in the United States, Canada, Sweden, Romania, Hungary, Finland, Portugal and Italy. Sheena has lectured as faculty for the International Committee of Military Medicine. Currently, she is adjunct faculty in the department of Philosophy at the University of Maryland University College in Germany where she teaches active duty soldiers and their families.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you RSVP Sharonvia email: arios@nus.edu.sg