Writing on Medicine in Climates of Controversy

What happens when scholars of medicine study topics that are controversial, legally incendiary, or politically polarizing? How does one strive to write an accurate and even-handed analysis knowing that one’s words and findings will be scrutinized and used by groups outside of academia with their own agendas? 

The 2026 workshop by The Department of Social Studies of Medicine, “Writing on Medicine in Climates of Controversy”, explores these questions. The workshop combines a plenary lecture on Medical Assistance in Dying by Daniel Weinstock with a session, moderated by Vanessa  Rampton, featuring three SSOM scholars — Phoebe Friesen, Sahar Sadjadi, and Andrea Tone — who recount their experiences navigating the controversies their work has evoked. 

Schedule: 

Plenary Address 1:00 pm-2:00pm 

Medical Assistance in Dying, Ethics, and Democracy 

Daniel Weinstock (https://www.mcgill.ca/law/profs/weinstock-daniel), Katharine A. Pearson Chair in Civil Society and Public Policy in the Faculties of Law and of Arts 

Break. 2:00pm-2:15pm 

Session 2:15 pm-4:00pm 

Complaining about Consent: Using Anesthetized Bodies as Teaching Tools 

Phoebe Friesen (https://www.mcgill.ca/ssom/staff/phoebe-friesen), Associate Professor, Departments of Equity, Ethics and Policy and Social Studies of Medicine 

Children, Gender Transition and What the Debate Cannot Hold 

Sahar Sadjadi, (https://www.mcgill.ca/ssom/staff/sahar-sadjadi) Assistant Professor, Department of Social Studies of Medicine 

Ewen Cameron: Litigated Legacies, Archival Discoveries 

Andrea Tone (https://www.mcgill.ca/ssom/staff/tone), Professor, Departments of Social Studies of Medicine and History and Classical Studies 

Reception 4:00pm-5:00pm