Medical ethics, the legal system and domestic violence will be the topics of an upcoming lunch-hour speaker series sponsored by the New York State Supreme Court Library at Buffalo.
Dr. Stephen Wear, an associate professor at the UB School of Medicine, will discuss the challenges faced by health care providers and patients in a presentation titled "Living Wills and Health Care Proxies in New York State." The Sept. 28 presentation will have a special emphasis on the importance of living wills and health care proxies.
In addition, Joseph Gerace, a retired State Supreme Court Justice, will speak regarding summary jury trials on Oct. 26. The speech will be followed by a lecture on the impact of domestic violence by Buffalo City Court Judge Sharon LoVallo.
Wear, also the co-director of the Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care at the University at Buffalo, has published articles on all aspects of medical ethics including end of life treatment, informed consent and the role of the primary physician.
Joseph Gerace presided over the New York State Supreme Court between 1995 and 2003 and has issued rulings in numerous cases involving business disputes. Sharon LoVallo was elected judge of the Buffalo City Court in 2003 and has served in this position to the present time. She previously worked as an Assistant District Attorney in the Office of the Erie County Attorney General.
Jeanine Lee, senior law librarian at the Supreme Court Library, said she hopes the speaker series will both benefit the library and educate the public.
"The speaker series program was a new initiative which was launched last spring. The purpose is two-fold: community service, to provide information on current topics to the public at large, and to make people aware of our library and the services that we offer," said Lee.
This spring, the inaugural sessions of the series addressed the issues of identity theft, cyber-stalking and Internet blogs.
In "Identity Theft: A Signature Crime in the Information Age," Jim Morrissey, a New York State Assistant General with the Consumer Fraud Bureau, discussed how identity theft is committed and listed the various precautions that consumers should take to protect themselves.
Holly Hubert from the Cyber-Predator Task Force of the FBI spoke about Internet safety.
Matthew S. Lerner, an associate at Goldberg Segalla LLP, discussed how to collect accurate and pertinent information from blogs. He established one of the first blogs dedicated to New York State Law. Similar presentations are expected for the spring of 2006.
The library's attempts to broaden the scope of its services and to reach out to the public have received a decidedly lukewarm response from UB students, many of whom are preoccupied with schoolwork and other extracurricular activities.
"I haven't heard much about it. I wouldn't go to it, because I am not really interested," said Elliot Kowalski, a first year law student at UB.
"Sounds interesting, but I have exams coming up," said Jennifer Kumar, a sophomore biomedical science major.
The one-hour presentations are free and open to the public. The lecture series will be held at the old UB Law School, located at 77 W. Eagle St.
"The programs are open to all: judicial and non-judicial court staff, local attorneys, students from UB and elsewhere, library staff and the general public," said Lee.
Photo: Courtesy of Matthew Messina, from the RMBERS' Instagram page
