With advances in the medical world and bioethics being of interest to many people, Iowa State officials decided to bring experts to campus for a discussion.

The first Feminist Medical Ethics Conference will be held Friday, starting at 9 a.m. in the Oak Room of the Memorial Union. It will feature four speakers and a panel discussion.

Jill Bystydzienski, director of the women’s studies program and one of the organizers of the event, said it is imperative to discuss these issues.

“In the past, ethics and medicine were dominated by men. Women did not have much input,” she said.

Pam Thomas, coordinator of the Margaret Sloss Women’s Center, said it is important for students to attend the conference.

“The topics are so intriguing, and [there’s a] wide appeal to students,” she said.

The speakers are as follows:

• First, Hilde Lindemann Nelson from the University of Tennessee will speak at 9 a.m. She is the director of the university’s Center for Applied and Professional Ethics. She’ll discuss “Feminist Bioethics: Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going.”

• At 10 a.m., Ruth Groenhout will give a speech titled “Feminist Medical Ethics and Abortion.” She is the assistant professor of philosophy at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.

• M. Therese Lysaught, assistant director in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Dayton, will speak at 11:15 a.m. Her speech is titled “Beyond Reproduction: Older Women’s Health Care and Feminist Ethics.”

• At 12:15 p.m., Rosemarie Tong from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte will address the question “Is a Global Bioethics Both Desirable and Possible? Some Feminist Perspectives.”

• At 2:15 p.m., a panel discussion titled “Feminism and Technology: The role of Reproductive Technologies in Developing Feminist Philosophy” will conclude the event. Michele Svatos, assistant professor of philosophy and religious studies, will be the panel’s moderator.

The Feminist Medical Ethics Conference is being sponsored by the women’s studies program, Institute on World Affairs, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, LAS Miller Lecture Fund, Committee on Lectures and the Bioethics Program and Office of Biotechnology. The conference is free, and all are welcome to attend.