Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care
Bioethics Bulletin
Editor: Tim Madigan
April, 1998
Volume Five, Number Four
Co-Directors:
Gerald Logue, MD and Stephen Wear, PhD
Associate Director:
Jack Freer, MD
Research Associate:
Adrianne McEvoy
Address: Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care
Veteran's Affairs Medical Center
3495 Bailey Avenue Buffalo, NY 14215
Telephone: 862-3412 FAX: 862-4748
Website:
http://wings.buffalo.edu/faculty/research/bioethics/
Send E-mail to: wear@acsu.buffalo.edu.
Newsletter Distribution
This newsletter can be delivered to you via e-mail or fax or over
the internet (forward your request to: Jack Freer, MD at:
jfreer@buffalo.edu).
If you prefer fax, call 862-3412 and
leave your fax number. We encourage and appreciate the use of
e-mail and fax distribution rather than paper for the newsletter.
Center Listservers
The Center now maintains two automated e-mail listservers.
BIOETH-LIST is primarily designed for those in the Greater Buffalo
area and permits subscribers to post to the list. This list is
available for posting local announcements, as well as a medium
for discussion of relevant topics. It will also distribute the
Center newsletter, "Bioethics Bulletin." If you are on this list,
you can send a message to the entire list by addressing the
message to: BIOETH-LIST@listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu. Archives
of old BIOETH-LIST messages are maintained at:
http://listserv.acsu.buffalo.edu/archives/bioeth-list.html
BIOBUL-LIST is strictly used for distribution of "Bioethics
Bulletin" and is mainly for those outside of Western New York.
If you have further questions about this service,
contact Jack Freer at 887-4852 or at: jfreer@buffalo.edu.
Center Website Chosen as "Web Pick of the Day"
The Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care’s
website was chosen as HMS Beagle’s "Web Pick of the Day", as well
as listed on the Beagle’s "Favorite Web Sites" page for 30 days.
In addition, it has been permanently catalogued in BioMedLink. HMS
Beagle is a webzine for biological and medical researchers, with a
daily digest of the highest-quality Web resources and published
materials. It was recently selected as one of Yahoo’s top 32
"incredibly useful" Web sites, and has thousands of visitors
daily. To search the site, go to: http://hmsbeagle.com.
New Appointment to SUNY Buffalo Philosophy Department
The SUNY-Buffalo Department of Philosophy has made a one-year
appointment of Dr. Scott DeVito to replace Richard Hull and serve
as the Department’s "expert in bioethics." DeVito, presently a
post-doctoral Fellow in the Department of Philosophy at Bowling
Green State University, received his PhD in Philosophy from the
University of Rochester in October, 1996. His B.A. in Philosophy
was granted by Queens College, City University of New York in June
of 1991.
Upcoming Center Meetings
The Center currently has three committees: Community Affairs,
Education and Research. All Center members are welcome to
participate in these committees.
Reading Group
The Center’s Reading Group has chosen to focus on the book
The Healer’s Power by Howard Brody, MD. PhD.
[
The Healer’s Power is available through
Amazon.Com.] There will be 1 meeting
in April. On Monday, April 13th at 4:00 PM, Tony Szczygiel,
SUNY-Buffalo law professor, will discuss chapter 14, "The Social
Power of Expert Healers", and Tim Madigan, "Bioethics Bulletin",
will discuss chapter 15, "Power and Theories of Medical Ethics."
The meetings are held at the Center for Inquiry,
1310 Sweet Home Road, between Maple and Rensch Roads in Amherst.
Meetings
are open to all interested parties. To receive copies of the reading material, or for
further information, contact
Adrianne McEvoy at 862-3412.
Upcoming Lectures
Monday, April 6. The Fourth Annual
University of Toronto Joint
Centre for Bioethics Jus Lecture, in honor of Dr. Andzej Jus,
will be held from 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM at the Toronto Hospital
(General Division). The lecture will take place in Banting Hall
(101 College Street, NU-G-113). Dr. Floyd E. Bloom, Chair,
Department of Neuropharmacology, The Scripps Research Institute,
La Jolla, California, and Editor-in-Chief, Science, will be
presenting on "Basically Honest is Not Good Enough in Science."
For more information, contact Margot Smith; phone 416--978-0871;
fax: 416-978-1911; e-mail: margot.smith@utoronto.ca.
Tuesday, April 14. "Creation vs. Evolution - the Debate Widens."
Speaker: Eugenie C. Scott, executive director, National Council
for Science Education. 8:00 PM. Center for Inquiry,
1310 Sweet
Home Road. Dr. Scott, who recently appeared on a "Firing Line"
debate on the topic "Should Evolutionists Acknowledge Special
Creation?" will discuss the ongoing controversy over the
teaching of evolution in high schools throughout the United
States. For further information, contact Tim Madigan at 636-7571.
Tuesday, April 21. "Ethical Challenges of Care Delivery in the
Community." Alumni Hall, Victoria University, University of
Toronto. Professor Raisa Deber, Joint Centre for Bioethics and
Department of Health Administration, University of Toronto is the
plenary speaker. Anne Moorehouse, Mary Rowell, Peter Thompson,
Peter A. Williams, and Rosemary Meier are workshop leaders.
Christine Harrison will lead a case discussion at the end of the
day. Hosted by Roger Hutchinson and Ted Reeve of Emmanuel College.
For further information, please contact the co-chairs Kathy Carlin
at 905-845-3585 or Louise Sanchez-Sweatman at
l.sanchez@utoronto.ca. Registration is limited. To register, call
Linda Sullivan at 416-530-6750.
Thursday, April 23-Friday, April 24. "The Human Genome Project:
Science, Law, and Social Change in the 21st Century." Whitehead
Institute for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, Massachusetts. For
a meeting brochure, call, write or e- mail: Gus Cervini, Office
of Public Affairs, Whitehead Institute, 9 Cambridge Center,
Cambridge, MA 02142; 617-258-0633;cervini@wi.mit.edu.
Course on Bioethics
The readers of "Bioethics Bulletin" are invited to attend a course
on "Social and Ethical Values in Medicine", led by Center
Co-Director Stephen Wear, PhD and Research Associate Adrianne
McEvoy. The course meets every Wednesday from 4:00 - 6:30 PM in
Knox Hall, Room 20, SUNY-Buffalo Amherst Campus. The following
talks will be held in the month of April:
April 1: Janet Kaye, J.D., of Buffalo State College will discuss
"death and dying in America" from a legal/journalistic/personal
perspective; Gerald Logue, MD will comment.
April 8: Paul Johnson, PhD of D’Youville College, will present and
comment on a film about physician-assisted suicide, and Adrianne
McEvoy will offer a review of the affirmative action position
regarding such a practice.
Hospice News
The chair of the International Work Group on Dying, Death and
Bereavement will present a two-part seminar on grief issues,
Friday, April 3 at the Center for Hospice and Palliative Care, 225
Como Park Boulevard, Cheektowagea. Kenneth J. Doka, Ph.D., an
ordained Lutheran clergyman and a professor of Gerontology at the
College of New Rochelle, will lecture on "Disenfranchised Grief
and Masculine Grief" from 9:00 AM - 4:00 PM. He is the author of
seven books, co- editor of Unrecognized and Unsanctioned Grief,
and has published more than 60 articles and chapters in the field
of death, dying, and bereavement. Dr. Doka will explore the
phenomena of disenfranchised grief or grief that persons
experience when they incur a loss that is not or cannot be openly
acknowledged, publicly mourned or socially supported. Experiences
that can result in this type of grief are perinatal loss,
abortion, divorce, pet loss, AIDS, and suicide. Registration for
the full-day conference is $85.00 and includes a continental
breakfast, box lunch, breaks, and material. To register, call the
Life Transitions Center, an affiliate of the Center for Hospice
and Palliative Care, at 836-6460.
Canadian Bioethics Society
The 10th Annual Canadian Bioethics Society Annual Meeting will be
held in Toronto on October 15-18, 1998. The conference is hosted
by the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics. Confirmed
plenary speakers include James Childress, John Lantos,
Robert Levine, Laura Purdy, and Judith Wilson Ross. A call for
workshops and abstracts will be issued soon. For further details,
contact Peter A. Singer, MD, MPH, FRCPC, Sun Life Chair in
Bioethics and Director,
University of Toronto Joint
Centre for Bioethics; phone: 1-416-978-4756; fax: 416-978-1911;
e-mail:
peter.singer@utoronto.ca.
Society for Health and Human Values Regional Meeting
The Society for Health and Human Values announces its Spring
Regional Meeting, April 17-19, 1998, at Youngstown State University,
Youngstown, Ohio. The theme of the meeting is: "Whose Ethics? Which
Medicine?: The Tacit and Explicit Development of a Medical Ethics",
sponsored by the Dr. James Dale Ethics Center at Youngstown State
University. Medical ethics has come of age as an area of scholarship
and research. Its scholars and researchers have made substantial
contributions to public policy and to the public awareness of
problems in the clinic and the laboratory. But all of this activity
has posed new questions for practioners of these arts. This
conference will provide a forum to examine the ways in which
different approaches to bioethics determine our conception of medicine
and its ethical issues, and it will consider the origins of medical ethics
and knowledge of medicine. Speakers include Charles Bosk, Howard Brody,
Tod Chambers, Larry Churchill, Richard B. Miller, Christine Mitchell, Rosa
Lynn Pinkus, and Rosemary Tong. For information, contact: Jody
Chicester,
Center for Medical Ethics, 3708 Fifth Avenue, Suite
300,
Pittsburgh, PA 15213.
Intensive Bioethics Seminar
The
Kennedy Institute of Ethics in Washington, D. C. is offering
an
Intensive Bioethics Course, from June 6-11. Standard tuition
is $1350, which includes course materials, breakfast and lunch,
receptions and evening banquet, but not other dinners or lodging.
The tuition fee is due by June 1, 1998. For details, call
1-202-687-5477.
Bioethics Course Offered
The Midwest Intensive Bioethics Course 1998 will be held
July 13-18 at Northwestern University Medical School, Chicago.
This year's theme is "Method in Bioethics: Philosophy, Law,
Narrative." Case discussion, history, literature, and film will
be used to illuminate basic ethical problems in health-care
delivery. Tuition is $700.00. A limited number of partial
tuition scholarships are available. Students may attend for
$250.00. Several kinds of lodging are available. For information,
contact Kristen Tym, Medical College of Wisconsin; phone:
414-456-4299; fax: 414-456-6511; e-mail: ktym@mcw.edu.
Call for Papers
The Fifth Biennial Conference on Psychiatric, Psychosocial and
Ethical Issues in Organ Transplantation, which will be held
October 2-4 at the Marriott Key Center in Cleveland, Ohio, is
accepting abstracts for presentation. The conference will be
multidisciplinary, with psychiatrists, nurses, social workers,
ethicists, and transplant physicians. Abstracts must be submitted
no later than March 15. For details, contact Margaret Kotz, 9500
Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH 44195.
Members Corner
The Members Corner is designed to note research, presentations
and published articles and books by Center members. Please send
all such information to the newsletter editor so that the Center
can keep members informed about the work occurring in this area.
Jack Freer has been named to the Editorial Board of the American
Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) Web Site
(http://www.asbh.org). The ASBH was founded in January 1998
through the consolidation of three existing associations in the
field: the Society for Health and Human Values (SHHV), the Society
for Bioethics Consultation (SBC), and the American Association of
Bioethics (AAB).
Stephen Wear has just been appointed as a member of the Board of
Professional Medical Conduct of the New York State Department of
Health by its Commissioner, Dr. Barbara DeBuono, and confirmed by
Governor George Pataki. This is the primary New York State
organization for monitoring physician conduct and imposing
disciplinary action when appopriate.
Timothy J. Madigan, "Cloning and Human Dignity", Free Inquiry,
Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 57-58.
Comments and Suggestions
Your comments and suggestions regarding this newsletter are
encouraged. Please send them to the Center address, or by e-mail
to the newsletter editor, Tim Madigan
timmadigan@aol.com. We
also need information on upcoming events that would be of
interest to Center members. The deadline for the next newsletter
is April 15th.