News Archive

The seventh annual Conference on Health, Disability and the Law took place at Inlow Hall on June 12 and attracted a large crowd to the Wynne Courtroom. This year’s conference focused on “Autism and Vaccines,” and featured keynote speaker, Paul Offit, MD, chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. The conference was co-sponsored by the law school, its Hall Center for Law and Health, and the Riley Child Development Center of the IU School of Medicine.

The conference provided several presentations on the issues surrounding autism and vaccination, including a discussion of what the research does and does not suggest. Related topics included the impact of the vaccination discussion on school policies and procedures, methods for professionals to use when talking with parents about vaccines, and ethical and policy implications.

New this year was the Health, Disability and the Law Student Lecture, featuring law student speaker Matthew Lasher, who presented on the topic, “Hoosier Immunity: Examining Mandatory Vaccinations and Recommending Improvements to Indiana’s Programs.”