This week, I wrote about a lecturer who spoke at Southern Illinois Medical School. He talked about health care reform, particularly the ethics and miscommunications that lead to the death panel rumors. It was very insightful, and I enjoyed interviewing him after the lecture.

Health care reform is barely two weeks old, and many Americans have yet to separate fact from fiction, says Dr. Harry R. Moody, director of academic affairs for the American Association of Retired Persons. Moody, an author and expert on medical ethics, spoke April 2 to students, faculty and staff at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine in Springfield.

His presentation, “Bioethics Meets Politics: What Can We Learn from the Battle for Health Care Reform?” was part of the John and Marsha Ryan Bioethicist in Residence Program, which provides seminars, activities and mentorship opportunities for medical students in Springfield and Carbondale.

Organizations like AARP are struggling to convince people that recent health care reforms can have a positive outcome, Moody says. Recent studies in social science have shown that people with certain fixed views will hold to those opinions, no matter how much evidence they see to the contrary, he says.

Click here for the full story.