Leon R. Kass, M.D., Ph.D., will deliver the WSU School of Medicine Dean's Distinguished Lecture Monday, Jan. 31. Dr. Kass is chairman of President George Bush's Council on Bioethics and the Addie Clark Harding Professor in the College and the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

The lecture, "Ageless Bodies, Happy Souls: Biotechnology and the Pursuit of Happiness," will be at 4 p.m. in Blue Auditorium and will include a question-and-answer session. A reception will follow.

Professor Kass has been chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics since 2001. He is a founding member of the Hastings Center, a highly influential bioethics think tank, and a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute. He is an internationally celebrated philosopher, lecturer and author.

His widely reprinted essays in biomedical ethics have dealt with issues raised by in vitro fertilization, cloning, genetic screening and genetic technology, organ transplantation, aging research, euthanasia and assisted suicide, and the moral nature of the medical profession.