October 2, 2019

Medical Ethics on the Border: A Look at Immigration Detention

Attend the 24th Annual Department of Psychiatry Waggoner Lecture on November 13

The community is invited to join the Michigan Medicine Department of Psychiatry for the 24th Annual Waggoner Lecture on Ethics & Values in Medicine. The title of this year’s talk is “Medical Ethics on the Border: A Look at Immigration Detention.” The talk will be presented by Pamela K. McPherson, M.D., FAPAon Wednesday, November 13 from 4:00 – 5:30 p.m. in Ford Auditorium at University Hospital.

In 2018, she and colleague Dr. Scott A. Allen exposed the serious health risks to children who are separated from their parents and detained as part of the U.S. administration’s zero tolerance policy at the southern border. Learn more about their work from this CNN article published in May: These doctors risked their careers to expose the dangers children face in immigrant family detention.

Pamela K. McPherson, M.D., FAPA is a medical doctor triple-boarded in general, child and adolescent, and forensic psychiatry. She is a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Shreveport Behavioral Health Clinic, a gratis assistant professor at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport, and a mental health subject matter expert for the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security. Dr. McPherson focuses her research on the mental health of justice-involved youth as well as conditions of juvenile confinement, and consults for the U.S. government and non-profits on mental health services for justice-involved youth.

 “We are delighted to welcome Dr. McPherson to our campus in November for this esteemed lectureship,” said Debra A. Pinals, M.D., clinical professor of psychiatry and director of the Program in Psychiatry, Law and Ethics at U-M and chair of the Waggoner Lectureship Committee. “Dr. McPherson has incredible insight into the conditions of immigrants entering the United States. She could not be better suited to address our campus for this lecture devoted to medical ethics and values in medicine.”

The University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry established the Raymond W. Waggoner Lectureship on Ethics and Values in Medicine in 1996. This lectureship was created in honor of the late Dr. Waggoner, emeritus professor and past chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, who throughout his career and to all who knew him, exemplified the highest standards of integrity and ethics.

The lectureship is an annual event to recognize Dr. Waggoner’s enormous contributions to the Michigan Medicine medical center and to the profession, and to promulgate his interest in medical ethics.

This event is free of charge and is open to the public. Ford Auditorium is located within the University of Michigan Hospital at 1500 E Medical Center Dr, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Find parking information here.

For more information, please contact:

Debra A. Pinals, M.D.

Clinical Professor of Psychiatry

[email protected]

or

Sandra Bigler

Administrative Assistant Senior to Debra A. Pinals, M.D.

[email protected]

734-647-8762