"Are genes our destiny?"

"Patient Autonomy and Decision Making: Jewish Attitudes"

Dr Jakobovits is Assistant Prof of Medicine at The Johns Hopkins University Hospital and School of Medicine. He studied medicine at University College, London and did an internship at New York's Maimonides Medical Center, followed by a fellowship specializing in gastroenterology at Johns Hopkins. He is resident physician on campus of Ner Israel Rabbinical College, Baltiomore. He publishes and lectures widely on medical ethics, particularly end-of-life decisions.

“Medical and halachic aspects of circumcision”                

" Mummies, Philosophers and Smallpox: The Rabbinic Response to Scientific Discoveries Throughout the Ages”

Rabbi Prof Edward Reichman is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and Assistant Professor of Philosophy and History of Medicine at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. He received his rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary of Yeshiva University and writes and lectures widely in the field of Jewish medical ethics. He is the recipient of a Kornfeld Foundation Fellowship and the Rubinstein Prize in Medical ethics. He is a member of the Board of the Halakhic Organ Donor Society and the New York Organ Donor Network.  His research is devoted to the interface of medical history and Jewish law.

"Playing G-d: Jewish Perspectives on Cloning,Genetic Engineering and Stem Cell Research"

Rabbi Breitowitz  is Associate Professor of Law at the University of Maryland and Rabbi of the Woodside Synagogue in Silver Spring, Maryland. He received his rabbinical ordination from Ner Israel Rabbinical College in 1976;  B.S. (honors, Johns Hopkins University);  J.D. (magna cum laude, Harvard Law School) in 1979; and a Doctorate in Talmudic Law from Ner Israel in 1992. He has lectured extensively throughout the United States and Israel on medical, business, and family ethics.  He has published articles on bankruptcy, commercial law, medical ethics, family law, and halacha.  He authored a survey article on the Brain Death Controversy in Jewish Law published in Jewish Action and an article on the status of the pre-embryo in Jewish law published in the Fall, '96 issue of Tradition. He has also written articles in Moment Magazine on physician assisted suicide and on Jewish law perspectives on the Monica Lewinsky affair. Most recently, he was a contributor to a symposium on the new genetics and Judaism published in Wellsprings Magazine and authored an article on Spirituality and the Workplace which appeared in Jewish Action. His recent work includes a monograph on the halachic issues surrounding assisted reproductive technologies, published in the Jewish Law Annual (Boston University) and an article entitled "What's Wrong with Human Cloning?" published in the Proceedings of the Kennedy Centre on Bioethics (Georgetown University). He authored a comprehensive book on Jewish divorce, "Between Civil and Religious Law: The Plight of the Agunah" which was published by Greenwood Press, (Westport, Conn. 1993).