Dr. Harvey Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine, served as provost of Harvard University from 1997 to 2001,
following thirteen years as dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. He spent forty years at Harvard as an undergraduate, a medical
student, a graduate student, a professor, a dean, and a provost. His most significant achievement at Harvard was the merger between
Harvard and Radcliffe, without which the Radcliffe Institute would not exist.
Fineberg begins his speech with stark and frightening statistics: "In the minutes that we've spent introducing the
program, about ten women in the world giving birth have died. Every year, hundreds of thousands will die giving birth." Dr. Fineberg
states that we need to consider whether "we are going to be concerned about applying existing knowledge" or "seriously investing in the
acquisition of new knowledge to solve current problems."
Fineberg compares the dangers of childbirth in the Western world and developing countries. In American and Europe, one in
4,000 women die during childbirth. In Africa, the number increases shockingly to one in fourteen. "The differences in the reality of the
current dangers to life and health in the course of reproduction are a stark reminder of the disparities in health and life opportunity
between the advanced and the developing worlds," Feinberg states. The conference addresses issues about this discrepancy and explores
the ways in which science can enable us to solve this problem.
Explaining why the dangers of childbirth are so prevalent, Fineberg says that despite the starkness of these statistics,
"in many, many corners of the policy-making world, there is a complacency about the problem of reproductive health." It is not
considered a priority, and surrounding problems are exacerbated by ideological hostility toward evidence-based thinking about
reproductive health needs and family planning.
Fineberg emphasizes that new technologies and scientific understandings can open avenues of opportunity "if we can
overcome the social and political constraints that currently inhibit a willingness that is necessary to make the investment." That would
aid both advanced and developing countries. Fineberg expresses his hope that the conference will address many questions related to
reproductive health and explore ideas on how to use new science to "solve the long-standing problems of reproductive health."
|
|