As more genes and mutations are identified in diseases for which particular populations are at increased risk, it is becoming more important to address the social, religious, and bioethical interfaces between communities and carrier screening. Public health programs of carrier screening usually leading to the prenatal testing are increasingly popular among the secular Israeli public yet pose a problem for those critical of selective abortion, such as the Orthodox Jewish community. Professor Raz will discuss research on the interface between Jewish-Israeli communities, public health and cutting-edge genetic technologies as well as the socially perceived pros and cons of whether and when to know (or not to know) your carrier status.

Aviad Raz is a Professsor of Scoiology and Director of the Program in Behavioral Sciences, Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Ben-Gurin University. His research focuses on religious/ethnic groups and identities in the contemporary Israeli society, especially in the context of health and family studies.

Co-sponsored by the UCLA Department of Sociology & the UCLA Department of Community Health Sciences