Reproduction Technology Expert, Ambassador to Tunisia, ACLU President and Child Care Entrepreneur to Speak at Yale

The following talks at Yale University Jan. 18-24 are free and open to the public.

Assisted reproduction technology is focus of physician’s talk

Dr. Marcelle I. Cedars, director of the Assisted Reproduction Program and director of ambulatory care in the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver, will speak on assisted reproduction on Wednesday, Jan. 20 at 7:30 p.m. Her talk is sponsored by the Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS) and Yale Hillel as part of a seminar series on bioethics and public policy.

Cedars will address the topic “From the Pill to Septuplets: Have We Gone Too Far with Reproductive Technologies?” at the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale, 80 Wall St. A reception will follow the talk.

The talk will explore whether the field of reproductive medicine has progressed too quickly without adequate time for public response, scrutiny and discourse, considering the current status of assisted reproduction technology as well as new technology on the horizon. Cedars will discuss such issues as how these technologies are introduced into clinical practice, whether patients are adequately protected, whether social discourse is appropriate, and whether the use of these new technologies should be considered research or clinical care.

Cedars, who is also an associate professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, is a nationally recognized speaker on topics related to women’s health, especially menopause and the ethics of new reproductive technologies.

Master’s tea will feature former U.S. ambassador

John T. McCarthy, a former U.S. ambassador to Tunisia and Lebanon, will be the guest at a tea on Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 4 p.m. at the Saybrook College master’s house, 90 High St.

McCarthy was ambassador to Tunisia 1991-94, during which time he carried on an official dialogue with Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. He was ambassador to Lebanon 1988-90, at the end of that country’s civil war. He recently retired after a long career in government service, which began when he joined the Foreign Service in 1962. He spent the next 35 years working at the State Department in Washington D.C. or at various American embassies and consulates overseas. He currently serves on the board of Save the Children USA and continues to travel widely.

ACLU president to talk at master’s tea

Nadine Strossen, president of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and professor of law at the New York Law School, will be the guest at a tea on Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 4:30 p.m. at the Calhoun College master’s house, 434 College St.

Strossen was elected president of the American Civil Liberties Union in 1991, when she became the first woman to lead the nation’s largest and oldest civil liberties union. She has written, lectured and practiced extensively in the areas of constitutional law, civil liberties and international human rights. Her book “Defending Pornography: Free Speech, Sex, and the Fight for Women’s Rights” was named a “notable book” of 1995 by The New York Times. Strossen coauthored “Speaking of Race, Speaking of Sex: Hate Speech, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties,” which was named an “outstanding book” by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America. Among other honors, she has twice been named by the National Law Journal as one of “The 100 Most Influential Lawyers in America” and was included in a recent Vanity Fair magazine feature on “America’s 200 Most Influential Women.

Trends in child care industry is topic of Bush Center talk

Julie Horowitz, director of business development for ChildrenFirst Inc. of New York City, will give a talk titled “Current Trends in the Child Care Industry” on Friday, Jan. 22, at noon in Rm. 119 of the Hall of Graduate Studies, 320 York St. The event is sponsored by the Bush Center in Child Development and Social Policy.

Horowitz, a 1997 graduate of the Yale School of Management, worked as an analyst for Furman Selz, an investment bank in New York City, until last October. There she specialized in education, and was perhaps the only analyst on Wall Street who focused specifically on child care. She is now developing new business for ChildrenFirst, a for-profit company that contracts with businesses to provide high quality, back-up child care to the children of employees. For further information, call 432-9935.