Polio and Ethics: Past, Present and Future
Course Description
Poliomyelitis, or polio, is a highly contagious infectious disease caused by the polio virus. The advent of polio vaccination in the 1950s and a global effort to eradicate polio starting in 1988, led to a hope and vision of the possible eradication of polio. However, polio has remained endemic in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and in 2022 the US saw its first case of polio in over 30 years. Many famous people have been affected by polio, including Franklin Roosevelt, Alan Alda, Francis Ford Coppola and Judy Heumann.
In this course, we will explore polio through multiple lenses: science, medicine, public health, literature, and history. We will explore the development of polio vaccines and the public health debates around mandatory vaccination. We will examine the history of the disability rights and justice movements through the lens of polio. We will learn about the influence of polio on the development of the fields of physical therapy and rehabilitation. We will explore the development of mechanical ventilation and critical care medicine and the ICU in Denmark in response to polio outbreak of 1952. We will end the quarter by examining recent changes in global public health policy and debates about their potential impacts on polio. Throughout the class, we will apply ethical reasoning to identify, discuss and debate ethical challenges associated with polio prevention, treatment and disability in society. Students will learn how to apply ethical frameworks to both current and historical dilemmas at the intersection of medicine, science and society.
Meet the Instructor: Holly Tabor
“I am a professor in the Department of Medicine and Director of the Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. I have courtesy appointments in the Departments of Pediatrics and Epidemiology and Population Health. I have always been interested in the intersection between science, medicine and society. I majored in history of science as an undergraduate, focusing my thesis on vaccination in the early 20th century for diphtheria. I got my PhD in Epidemiology, with a minor in Genetics, at Stanford and then became a bioethicist. I am co-chair of the Ethics Committees at both our hospitals. My research focuses on ethical issues surrounding disability and on genetics. I am the parent to two adult young men, both of whom have disabilities. My mother-in-law had polio as a small child, so this topic is close to home. I love teaching students who want to think outside the box about science and medicine.”
Of related interest
