Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care

Bioethics Bulletin

July 1998
Volume Five, Number Seven

Co-Directors: Gerald Logue, MD and Stephen Wear, PhD
NOTE NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS

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. NOTE NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS

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.

Upcoming Center Meetings

The Center currently has three committees: Community Affairs, Education and Research. All Center members are welcome to participate in these committees.

Upcoming Lectures

Friday, July 24. "Serving an Invisible Minority: Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education." Speaker: Dr. Elizabeth B. Conant, board member, PFLAG (Parents,Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). 8:00 PM, Center for Inquiry, 1310 Sweet Home Road, Amherst. For details, call 636-4869.

UB Mini-Medical School

The Faculty of the SUNY-Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences invites those who want to learn more about how the human body works, what makes it susceptble to acute and chronic conditions and diseases, and the connection between research and the advances in medical care to enroll in its Mini-Medical School lecture series. Each session of the Medical Grand Rounds will feature a clinician and a pathologist who will use a real patient's case history to list clinical findings, explain laboratory data, and develop a definitive diagnosis of a disease. A treatment plan will be discussed. Participants in the Mini-Medical School will meet and hear some of the most dynamic teachers from among the accomplished scientists and clinicians on the faculty of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Graduates will receive a certificate attesting to the successful completion of the program, and will also be eligible to join and receive the annual benefits of SUNY-Buffalo's Mini-Medical School Alumni Association.

The schedule is as follows:
August 4, Tuesday, Session 1 - Breast Cancer
Clinician: Alan Saltzman, M.D., Clinical Professor, Medicine
Pathologist: Amy Sands, MD, Associate Professor, Pathology

August 11, Tuesday, Session 2 - Nerotizing Fasciitis
Clinician: Alan J. Lesse, MD, Professor, Medicine and Pharmacology and Toxicology
Pathologist: John Wright, MD, Professor, Pathology and Interim Dean, School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences

August 18, Tuesday, Session 3 - Multiple Sclerosis
Clinician: Frederick E. Munschauer, III, MD, Associate Professor, Neurology
Pathologist: Reid R. Heffner, MD, Professor, Pathology

August 25, Tuesday, Session 4 - Cardiovascular Disease
Clinician: Susan Graham, MD, Associate Professor, Medicine
Pathologist: Peter Ostrow, MD, Associate Professor, Pathology; WIVB Ch. 4 Medical Update at 5:00 PM.

Each session will take place at Butler Auditorium, Farber Hall, on the SUNY-Buffalo South Campus, from 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM. Advance registration is required. The cost is $30.00 for individuals ($25.00 for seniors; $20.00 for students). For information, call 829-2196 between 8:30 AM and 5:00 PM Monday through Friday.
Website information: http://www.smbs.buffalo.edu/minimed/

Millard Fillmore Perinatal Support Group

Caring Arms Support Group was established in 1992. It was the first hospital based support group in the Western New York area. Meetings are as follow:

Miscarriage and Ectopic Pregnancy Group - Every 2nd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital, 1540 Maple Road, Williamsville.

Caring Arms - Stillbirth and Newborn loss up to one year. Every 2nd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM at St. Gregory the Great's Community Room, 100 St. Gregory Drive, Williamsville.

Precious Lives, Painful Choices - a group of people who have interrupted a wanted pregnancy because of fetal anomalies. Every 3rd Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital.

Journey of the Next Pregnancy - a group for those experiencing a subsequent pregnancy after loss. Every 4th Tuesday of the month at 7:00 PM at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital.

Grandparents Discussion Group - meets quarterly at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital.

This year the annual "Walk to Remember" will be held at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital on September 27th at 1:00 PM. This walk is to memorialize any baby who has died, no matter the gestational age or how long ago. It is a time that parents can remember and also alert the community that parents who lose a baby grieve and need to remember in order to heal. Last year there were over 350 participants.

For further information, please contact: Kathleen Skipper, RNC, Perinatal Bereavement Coordinator, at 568-6570 or kfskipper@aol.com.

Canadian Bioethics Society

The 1998 Canadian Bioethics Society Annual Meeting will be hosted by the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics, in Toronto on October 15-18, 1998, at the Delta Chelsea Inn. Full information, including Official Abstract Forms and Registration Forms, are available from the Centre's website (www.utoronto.ca/jcb) or by contacting Rhonda Martin; phone: 1-416-978-1906; fax: 416-978-1911; e-mail: rhonda.martin@utoronto.ca.

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.

Conference on Ethics and Health Care

The University of Virginia Olsson Center for Applied Ethics and the Center for Biomedical Ethics will be sponsoring a conference on "Organization Ethics and Health Care", September 25-26, at the Jordan Hall Conference Center, Charlottesville, Virginia. Presentations will address the relation between professional ethics, business ethics, and clinical ethics in today's rapidly changing health care environment. The $50.00 registration fee will include a dinner reception at the University of Virginia's Rotunda. For information, contact: Patricia Werhane, PhD, Darden School, Box 550, Charlottesville, Virginia 22906; phone: 804-924-4840; fax: 804-924-6378; e-mail: Phw2m@virginia.edu.

Call for Papers

The George Washington University Medical Center will be sponsoring a conference on Law, Medicine, and Ethics in the Real World of Managed Care, October 8-10, at the Boston Marriott, Cambridge, Massachusetts. Abstracts are being accepted for presentation in a poster session to be held on October 10. Presenters will have the opportunity to discuss and get feedback about their work, and meeting participants will have the chance to hear about and respond to current research findings and professional papers. Abstracts, including the session's title and the author's name, affiliation, address, and daytime phone number must be submitted by August 14, 1998, in triplicate on a single (appropriately 250 words) typed and double-spaced page. Presenters must pay the standard registration fee and will be notified in writing regarding acceptance of their abstracts. Abstracts should be sent to: Katie Ansbro, Conference Director, American Society of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 765 Commonwealth Avenue, 16th Floor, Boston, MA 02215; e-mail: conastme@bu.edu.

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.

Stephen Wear, Robert Milch, and W. Lynn Weaver, "Care of Dying Patients"; in Surgical Ethics; edited by Laurence McCullough, James Jones and Baruch Brody; Oxford University Press, 1998, pp. 171-197.

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 July 15th.