Bodaken Philosophy Symposium Dr Ezekiel Emanuel.Txt ‐ Wow, You Guys Are Such a Great Audience
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Bodaken Philosophy Symposium Dr Ezekiel Emanuel.txt ‐ Wow, you guys are such a great audience. I wish all my freshman seminars acted the same way. Thank you for being here tonight for a very special occasion. This is an opportunity to celebrate the Department of Philosophy and the impact that an alumni can have on the department. Now many of you know that CSU has a distinctive tradition in philosophy in terms of the breadth of the areas of our faculty study and also having pioneered areas such as environmental and animal ethics. Today we're brought together by one of the more distinguished alumni of the Philosophy Department, Bruce Bodaken. Bruce has recently retired as president and chairman and CEO of the health insurance non‐profit Blue Shield of California. His long and successful career was groundbreaking in many ways, especially for his advocacy for universal healthcare in California, more than eight years before President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act. Through Bruce's generous support, the faculty in the Department of Philosophy have established the Bodaken Philosophy Symposium. Following tonight's inaugural event, the department plans to bring an annual series of lectures and workshops to the department. These will provide educational opportunities for both undergraduate and graduate students. As it becomes an annual event, the symposium will enhance the visibility of philosophy on the CSU campus and strengthen the reputation of the department and its faculty both nationally and internationally. So tonight I want to thank the faculty and the Department of Philosophy, especially Moty Goren, Ken Shockley and Phil Kafaro, who have been on the committee that has organized this and John Ditea, the chair of the department. I'd like to thank Mike LaPlante, who's the Associate Vice‐President for Development who helped us connect with Bruce and also the CLA development team and communications teams led by Tanya Mallick‐Carson and Beth Edder. Most of all, thanks Bruce. Alumni like Bruce are very, very special. He has said to me on many occasions that his training and philosophy was central to his successful career, that his background in philosophy distinguished him from his peers with business degrees and uniquely prepared him to be a leader and an innovator and now he is giving back to ensure that future generations have a similar opportunity to explore ideas and develop the skills that will help them in their future lives and careers as well. Please join me in welcoming Bruce Bodaken. ‐ Well, thank you very much. Welcome to everyone. You're in for a treat. I couldn't be happier that we're starting the lecture series here and the ongoing series and workshops I very much hope will expand both the reputation and the nature of the direction of the philosophy faculty. Philosophy here, as was said, changed my life. And it went on, even though I didn't know I was gonna have a business career, I ended up doing that and it was incredibly beneficial to have learned both social and political philosophy, but certainly ethics and an understanding of humane leadership. So I credit that to a very good extent to Colorado State University's philosophy department, many, many years ago. With that I also couldn't be more pleased to introduce our speaker. Dr. Ezekiel J. Emanuel is the Vice Provost for Global Initiatives, the Diane S. Levy and Robert M. Levy University Professor and Chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Healthy policy at the University of Pennsylvania. That's a mouthful, see. I won't read the many accomplishments and publications. I will mention one thing I looked up in Wikipedia or I was told this, that Zeke is the most cited bioethicist in the nation, I'm sorry, in the world, which tells you how much he's published and how much he's regarded. I will just say Page 1 Bodaken Philosophy Symposium Dr Ezekiel Emanuel.txt this that during his days in the administration as health policy advisor to the White House in both crafting and then promoting its passage through congress, the Affordable Care Act. I was at Blue Shield at that time and as was mentioned we took universal healthcare very seriously and I got the distinct pleasure of both meeting Zeke and working a bit with him in that process. There was no one brighter, more practical or more impactful in both the creation and the passage of that bill. I thank Zeke for that and I know count him as friend and I can't be more pleased you're kicking off this series. Thanks, Zeke. ‐ Sorry. Well, it's a great honor to be here and I want to thank you all for showing up and I want to thank Bruce for endowing this lectureship and having me come and give the inaugural lectureship. It really is a tremendous honor to be here. This is my first time in Fort Collins and it seems like an amazing place and as the philosophy faculty will tell you already, I've been trying to angle to figure out how I can come back and do some hiking. I don't have that many years to go, so it's really urgent. So, yes, 75. Uh‐oh. Hold on. Okay, now far from here I came up with the idea of talking about the American immortal. You guys in Colorado know something about this. These are the people who think they're never gonna die, who are outside all the time, who are trying the latest gamish to try to live longer, whether it's some pill or some other crazy idea. I happen to be related to one of those people, but I think there's a very high concentration in a few cities in Colorado of these people and I happen to meet them on occasion. But there is a version of the American immortal who really doesn't want to die and will do almost anything not to die. Now, the life expectancy in the United States has increased dramatically. At the turn of the 20th century, that is in 1900, it was about 49 years. It then rapidly increased and you can see here in 1960, it was 70 years and we're now up at 79 years. You probably also will note that it's kind of plateauing here. We've actually had some pretty bad data recently about that. We are nowhere near the maximum country, that's Japan, at 84 plus years. Now, a lot of people who released these data, the sort of life expectancy in the United States, every year the CDC releases what it is and it's usually followed by some big articles, as if this were somehow an important number. I think this is a terrible number to keep track of and I may come back at the end and explain what I think is a better number. But I do think that when we're gonna discuss longevity, life expectancy, immortality, we really have to ask ourselves the following question. Is it quantity of life or is it quality of life? So, we can start now. I want everyone who believes it's quantity of life to raise their hand. Don't be embarrassed. You came to this because you don't agree with me, so you want to see what I have to say. Okay, raise your hands if you think it's quality of life. All right, I've won the discussion as they say. We're now just quibbling about the date. And that's a very important point. By the way, if I had called the article why I want to die at 85, no one would have read it. Let's just be clear. And by the way, for those of you who don't know anything about publishing articles and journals like the Atlantic, the author never chooses the title and I did not choose that title. The editor chooses the title and there's some email back and forth with a few expletives I can't mention here about that title. But there are people who actually do believe in the quantity of life, even if they're not in this auditorium. Probably the most infamous of which is Aubrey DeGray, British biomedical researcher. He claims that Page 2 Bodaken Philosophy Symposium Dr Ezekiel Emanuel.txt the first person whose ever gonna live to 150 has already been born and that the first person who lives to a thousand will be born in the next 20 years. Now, you know, whether you believe him or not, there are many people who interestingly don't happen to be located in Colorado, but there are concentrated in a particular place where there's a company funded by Google called Calico, which is looking into longevity. There's the Longevity Institute. There's the Buck Institute. And they're all trying to research how to live forever. I think 1000 years is pretty close to forever for us mere mortals. And so there are those people and let's be honest, you know, these are the books that are on the bestseller list in the United States at any one time American Mortal, right, they're pushing for regenerative medicine, anything, and you can sell How to Live to 100. When I proposed to my publisher, my agent, maybe I ought to do a book out of my article, they say Americans don't read that book, they want to live to 100.