Van Leer Institute Series on Ideas
Aug 28, 2026 · 57 min · 22 segments
Once upon a time, or so we’ve been told, medical ethics were confined to the patient-doctor relationship. As long as doctors were true to their Hippocratic oaths, as long as they acted with compassion…
Shai LaviGuestRenee GarfinkelHostPerhaps there was a time, or so we've been told, when medical ethics was confined to the doctor-patient relationships.
As long as doctors were true to their Hippocratic oaths, as long as they acted with compassion and wisdom toward their patients, then all expectations were met.
But life is more complicated today, and so is health care, an undertaking, like all others, that is influenced by social, political, legal, and cultural factors.
Today's guest will help us understand the dynamics of these factors
He's also a professor in the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University and co-director of the Minerva Center for the Study of the End of Life.
Professor Lavi's earlier book, The Modern Art of Dying, A History of Euthanasia in the United States, won the 2006 Sociology of Law Distinguished Scholarly Book Award of the American Sociological Association.
I wonder if you could begin the interview by telling us a little bit about yourself.
when my parents were there following their vocation.
So I don't have a deep Israeli, thick Israeli accent, but you'll catch me here and there.
In the past two years, I've been also the director of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.
Perhaps there was a time, or so we've been told, when medical ethics was confined to the doctor-patient relationships.
As long as doctors were true to their Hippocratic oaths, as long as they acted with compassion and wisdom toward their patients, then all expectations were met.
But life is more complicated today, and so is health care, an undertaking, like all others, that is influenced by social, political, legal, and cultural factors.
Today's guest will help us understand the dynamics of these factors
He's also a professor in the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University and co-director of the Minerva Center for the Study of the End of Life.
Professor Lavi's earlier book, The Modern Art of Dying, A History of Euthanasia in the United States, won the 2006 Sociology of Law Distinguished Scholarly Book Award of the American Sociological Association.
I wonder if you could begin the interview by telling us a little bit about yourself.
when my parents were there following their vocation.
So I don't have a deep Israeli, thick Israeli accent, but you'll catch me here and there.
In the past two years, I've been also the director of the Van Leer Jerusalem Institute.
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