You are invited to attend an in-person and virtual lecture presented by the Medical History Interest Group:

"Medical Ethics on the Battlefield: The Misunderstood Case of Penicillin in WWII"
Monday, December 2nd at 4pm

The in-person lecture will be held in the Evelyn Fike Laupus Gallery, fourth floor Laupus Library.

You may also attend the event virtually at this link: https://ecu.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx...

The lecture will be presented by Sheena M. Eagan, MPH PhD, Associate Professor of Bioethics & Interdisciplinary Studies.

Presentation Description: This research reexamines the case of penicillin use during World War II, often cited as a classic example of reverse triage in military medical ethics. Unlike traditional triage, reverse triage prioritizes soldiers with less severe injuries for quick treatment to return them to battle, notably favoring those with sexually transmitted infections over the critically injured. The authors argue that penicillin allocation during WWII did not adhere to the reverse triage principle and this work challenges the simplistic narratives surrounding this case, arguing that the case serves as an example of evolving medical practice, resource allocation, ethically sound research, and ethical decision-making in the context of wartime.

About the Speaker: Sheena M. Eagan is an Associate Professor with the Department of Bioethics and Interdisciplinary Studies, as well as adjunct faculty with the Department of Public Health in the Brody School of Medicine. Dr. Eagan serves as course director for the second-year bioethics course, faculty advisor to BSOM's Military Medicine Interest Group, and co-Director of ECU’s Veteran to Scholar Boot Camp. Before coming to ECU, she worked as a defense sub-contractor providing ethics education to military service-members and their families. Dr. Eagan also held a variety of visiting scholar positions for Yale University, the Brocher Foundation, and the University of Belgrade. Dr. Eagan holds a PhD in the medical humanities from the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston as well as a Master of Public Health from the Uniformed Services University. Her doctoral studies focused on medical ethics and the history of medicine, with a subspecialized focus on military medicine. Dr. Eagan is the creator and president of the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities group for Military, Humanitarian and Disaster Medicine and has worked closely with the International Committee of Military Medicine.

This event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided.

Directions and Parking Information: https://hsl.ecu.edu/about/directions/

If you’d like to travel by bus from Main Campus, take bus 302 from the Main Campus Student Center to the Allied Health Sciences Building. Click here for the 302 bus schedule: https://transit.ecu.edu/.../campu.../302-health-sciences/...

This presentation is part of the Ruth and John Moskop History of Medicine Lecture Series.

Individuals requesting accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) should contact the ADA Coordinator at least 48 hours prior to the event at (252) 737-1018 (voice/TTY) / ada-coordinator@ecu.edu

For any questions about the event, please contact me at frazierm24@ecu.edu.