Director of Advocates for Informed Choice to Deliver Pitt’s Annual Nordenberg Lecture in Law, Medicine, and Psychiatry Oct. 28

PITTSBURGH—Anne Tamar-Mattis, founder and executive director of Advocates for Informed Choice, will deliver the annual Mark A. Nordenberg Lecture in Law, Medicine, and Psychiatry at noon Oct. 28 in the University of Pittsburgh Barco Law Building’s Teplitz Memorial Courtroom, 3900 Forbes Ave., Oakland. Her talk is titled “Legal and Ethical Issues in Medical Treatment of Children With Variations of Sex Anatomy.”

In her lecture, Tamar-Mattis will identify key legal and ethical issues in treating children with intersex conditions—variations of sexual anatomy or chromosomes that do not fit standard expectations for gender distinction, with the goal of deepening understanding of the ethics and law of surrogate decision-making on behalf of children in complex cases and exploring the balance between the medical need for knowledge and the child’s rights to privacy and dignity.

Advocates for Informed Choice is the first organization in the country to focus on legal advocacy for the civil and human rights of children born with intersex conditions. Tamar-Mattis has served for many years as an organizer in the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer/Questioning) and intersex communities. She is the former director of the national LYRIC Youth Talkline and former program director of the San Francisco LGBT Community Center.

A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law, Tamar-Mattis earned a BA in religious studies at Brown University. She has returned to Berkeley law school as a lecturer teaching the classes Sex Discrimination and Sexual Orientation and the Law. She is the author of Exceptions to the Rule: Curing the Law’s Failure to Protect Intersex Infants (LexisNexis, 2006) and writes a regular column in Endocrine Today, a professional journal reaching physicians who care for intersex children.

Tamar-Mattis is sought after as a speaker nationwide on topics relating to legal and ethical issues affecting children with intersex conditions, including such venues as UCSF Children’s Hospital, Yale Law School, and the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society.

Tamar-Mattis’ work in service to LGBTQ and intersex communities has been recognized by such organizations as Equal Justice Works, Echoing Green, the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association, and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence.

Pitt’s annual lecture in law, medicine, and psychiatry is named after Pitt Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg, former dean of the law school, and is approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education (CLE) Board for one hour of substantive CLE credit. Registration is available at the door. There is a $25 fee to obtain CLE credit with a check made payable to the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

For more information, call 412-647-5700 or e-mail bioethic@pitt.edu.

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