Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care

Bioethics Bulletin

December 1998
Volume Five, Number Twelve
Co-Directors: Gerald Logue, MD and Stephen Wear, PhD
NOTE NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS

Associate Director: Jack Freer, MD
Research Associates: Adrianne McEvoy and Larry Torcello
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.

Reading Group

The Center's Reading Group will meet on Wednesday, December 2 at 4:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the Center for Inquiry, 1310 Sweet Home Road, Amherst. David Nyberg, professor of education at SUNY-Buffalo and author of the book The Varnished Truth, will speak on "Is It Ever Right to Deceive Patients?" There will be a discussion on his recent paper "Deception & Moral Decency", in which he states: "Briefly, my view is that deception is not merely to be tolerated as an occasionally prudent aberration in a world of truth-telling: it is rather an essential component of our ability to organize and shape the world, to resolve problems of coordination among individuals who differ, to cope with uncertainty and pain, to be civil and to achieve privacy as needed, to survive as a species, and to flourish as persons." Copies of the paper are available from the Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care. To receive a copy of for further information, call 862-3412.

Center Sponsors a Lecture on "Feminist Bioethics"

The Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care will be sponsoring a special lecture on Monday, December 7 at 4:00 PM. The speaker will be Laura M. Purdy, bioethicist and Professor of Philosophy, University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics and The Toronto Hospital. Her topic is: "What Feminism Can Do For Bioethics." She writes: "Much of the emphasis in feminist work has been on showing how traditional disciplines exclude women's interests. But it's also interesting to think about how feminism can enhance those disciplines. To show what feminism can do for bioethics, I first dispel common misconceptions about feminism, make some claims about what I see as central to it, and suggest some of its implications for bioethics." Purdy has a PhD in Philosophy from Stanford University, and is author of the books Reproducing Persons: Issues in Feminist Bioethics (Cornell University Press, 1996) as well as co-editor of Feminist Perspectives in Medical Ethics (Indiana University Press, 1992) and _Embodying Bioethics: Recent Feminist Advances_ (Rowman & Littlefield, in press). The meeting will be held at the Center for Inquiry, 1310 Sweet Home Road in Amherst. For details, contact Tim Madigan at 636-7571, ext. 218.

Upcoming Lectures

Friday, December 4. "A Symposium on Women and Gender in International Cinema." 2:00 PM in the Screening Room, Center For the Arts, SUNY-Buffalo North Campus. Participants: Dr. Hank Bromley (Educational Leadership and Policy), Dr. Joan Copjec (Center for the Study of Psychoanalysis and Culture), Dr. Alexis DeVeaux (American Studies), Prof. Sarah Elder (Media Study), Prof. Mary Flanagan (Media Study), Prof. Charlene Gilbert (Media Study), Dr. Shaun Irlam (Comparative Literature), Meg Knowles (Media Study), Dr. Reinhild Steingroever (Modern Languages and Literature), and Dr. Margarita Vargas (Modern Languages and Literature). A reception follows at 5:00 PM in the SUNY-Buffalo Art Gallery (1st Floor), Center For the Arts. For further information, contact Penka Skachkova at 829-3451, or by e-mail: pss@acsu.buffalo.edu.

Wednesday, December 9. "Developing Ethical Fitness: A Leadership Perspective." Speaker: Dr. Rushworth M. Kidder, Founder and President of the Institute for Global Ethics. 7:30 PM, Gannon University, Erie, Pennsylvania. Free and open to the public. For details, call 814-871-7231.

Thursday, December 10. "Women Who Abuse Substances: How They Protect and How They Punish Their Children." Speaker: Dr. Brenda Miller, Social Worker. 3:00 - 5:00 PM, 105 Harriman Hall, SUNY-Buffalo Main Street Campus. For information, call 829-3451. Sponsored by the Institute for Research and Education on Women and Gender.

Thursday, December 10. "Commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights." Speaker: Matthew Cherry, Executive Director, Council for Secular Humanism. 7:30 PM, Center for Inquiry, 1310 Sweet Home Road. On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations, on behalf of the peoples of the world, adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - the first global document establishing the fundamental rights of all human beings. Learn about the origins and scope of human rights, and enjoy music and inspirational readings from area artists and activists. The Western New York chapter of Amnesty International will also participate in this unique event. Refreshments will be provided. Matt Cherry was a leader with the British Humanist Association and with the International Humanist and Ethical Union in Utrecht, the Netherlands. For more information, call 636-4869, or e- mail Jo Ann Mooney at joannmooney@earthlink.net.

Hospice News

The Center for Hospice and Palliative Care will be holding an open house on Tuesday, December 8 and Tuesday, January 19, from 7:00 - 8:00 PM. The Center is located at 225 Como Park Boulevard, Cheektowaga. A representative will give a presentation about the Center's services. A tour of the campus will also be available. The Center for Hospice and Palliative Care consists of Hospice Buffalo, Home Care Buffalo, Kresge Residence, Life Transitions Center, and The Hospice Foundation of WNY. These agencies provide a comprehensive range of services to enhance the comfort and qualilty of life for patients and families confronting serious illness or loss. To attend the free event, call the Marketing Department at 686-8258.

Jewish Medical Ethics Conference

The 10th Annual International Conference on Jewish Medical Ethics will be held on Presidents' Weekend, February 12-15, 1999 at the Park Plaza Hotel near the San Francisco International Airport. Among the topics to be discussed is workshop on the role, from a Jewish perspective, of a physician on a hospital ethics committee. The workshop leader is Rabbi Lawrence Zierler, who serves as an ethics committeee member of Heather Hills Hospital, University Hospitals, and MacDonald Hospital in Cleveland.

International Ethics Conference

The International Association of Bioethics, in conjunction with the Asian Bioethics Association, will convene the Fourth World Congress of Bioethics, "Global Bioethics: East and West, South and North." The meeting is planed for November 4-7, 1998 at Nihon University Hall, Tokyo. The Congress is open to all who are interested in topic of bioethics; it offers a forum for interdisciplinary discussion and reflection, within a general focus on cross- cultural bioethics of the whole global biosphere. For information contact: Secretariat IAB4, Department of Philosophy, Nihon University, 3-25-40 Sakurajosui, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 156, Japan.

Web Ethics Course

Michigan State University will again be offering Issues in Health Care Ethics, a survey course for persons working in health care or affiliated with institutional ethics committees. It will be run entirely on the Web. For a preview, more information, and to request an application form, point your browsers to: http://iphh.cal.msu.edu/web_ethics/preview Tom Tomlinson will be the primary instructor. He can be reached at: tomlins4@pilot.msu.edu or by phone at 517-355-1634.

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.

A second edition of Stephen Wear's book on informed consent has just been published in paperback by Georgetown University Press. Stephen Wear, Informed Consent: Patient Autonomy and Clinician Beneficence in Health Care, 2nd Edition; Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1998. $19.95. ISBN 0-87840-706-5.

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 November 15th.