University at Buffalo

Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care

Bioethics Bulletin


Editor: Tim Madigan
NOTE NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS

February 1999
Volume Six, Number Two
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, February 17 at 4:00 PM. The meeting will be held at the Center for Inquiry, 1310 Sweet Home Road, Amherst. Roger Worthington will speak on "The patient/physician relationship and current trends in managed care." There will also be a meeting on Wednesday, March 10 at 4:00 PM at the same location by Monica Spaulding, MD on "Ethical Issues in Palliative and Long Term Care." If you plan to attend one of these sessions, please call 862-3412 for copies of relevant readings.

Upcoming Lectures

Thursday, February 4. "It Was a Wonderful Life: Hidden Homeless Women." A film following the lives of six "hidden" homeless women as they struggle to survive and cope with life. The women were left homeless after a divorce, loss of a job, or a long illness. Dr. Nancy Chin from the University of Rochester Department of Community and Preventative Medicine and former Director of the Medical School's Community Outreach Program will be the discussion leader. University of Rochester, K-207 (room 2-6408) in the Medical Center. For details, call Andrea Ehmann at 275-5800.

Wednesday, February 10. "Darwin and Feminism: Preliminary Investigations into a Possible Alliance." Speaker: Elizabeth Grosz, Professor in Critical Theory, Philosophy and Women's Studies, and Director of the Institute for Cultural and Critical Theory at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. 2:00 PM, SUNY-Buffalo Center for the Arts, Amherst Campus. A reception will follow in the atrium.

Wednesday, February 10. "Invasive Therapy, Reproduction, and Women's Nature: Social Assumptions and Their Consequences." Speaker: Laura Purdy, PhD. 4:00 - 5:00 PM. Joint Centre for Bioethics, 88 College Street, Great Hall, Philippa Harris Bioethics Library, Toronto. For details, call 416-978-0871.

Thursday, February 18. "Save the Children: Jewish Medical Ethics and Pediatric Medicine." Speaker: Rabbi Frydman-Kohl, Rabbi of the Beth Zedec Conservative Synagogue. 3:00 - 4:00 PM. The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, University Wing, 10th Floor, Bioethics Conference Room, Room 10407, Toronto. Coffee and kosher refreshments will be served. For details, contact Michelle Cox, tel: 416-813-5000; e-mail: micheline.cox@sickkids.on.ca.

Wednesday, March 24. The George Washington Corner Society of Rochester presents a talk on "Blood Clots: the Use of Clot Busters in the Treatment of Strokes." Speaker: Richard Satran, MD, professor emeritus of neurology, University of Rochester. 6:30 PM, Rochester Academy of Medicine, 1441 East Avenue, Rochester. The talk is free and open to all. A dinner follows at 7:30 PM, for which there is a $27.00 charge. If you would like to attend the dinner, contact Andrea Ehmann at 275-9781.

Wednesday, April 7. The Philippa Harris Lecture on Bioethical Issues in Cancer will be held on Wednesday, April 7, 1999 at 5:00 PM at the Princess Margaret Hospital, Toronto. The lecture will take place in the Auditorium (610 University Avenue, 6th Floor). Joanne Lynn, Director of the Center to Improve Care of the Dying, Institute for Health Policy, Outcomes, and Human Values at the George Washington University Medical Center will be speaking on "When All is Said and Done: Improving End of Life Care." For more information, contact Margot Smith (e-mail: margot.smith@utoronto.ca; fax: 416-978-1911; tel: 416-978-0871.

Thursday, April 15-Friday, April 16. Ontario Gerontology Association 18th Annual Conference. The Colony Hotel Downtown, Toronto. The 9th Annual GRCO Bayne-Galloway Lecture will be given by Dr. Rosalie Kane of the University of Minnesota, entitled "Long Term Care: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." For more information, call 416-535-6034; fax: 416-535-6907; e-mail: dvigoda@compuserve.com.

SUNY-Buffalo Spring Clinical Day

The Freshman Medical School Class at SUNY-Buffalo is the first in the 150 year history of the school to have a majority of women in the class (69 women vs. 66 men). It is fitting that this year's Spring Clinical Day topic is "Women's Health Issues." The focus will be on advances in the identification and treatment of the common cancers seen in women. Speakers include: Dr. Steven Piver, Dr. Wende Logan-Young, Dr. Stephen Edge, and Ms. Carolyn Farrell. The Stockton Kimball Lecturer will be the renowned spokesperson for women's rights, Betty Friedan. In 1963 she wrote The Feminine Mystique. Her most recent book, Beyond Gender: The Politics of Work and Family, reflects the changes in the women's movement in the 35 years since. For details, call 829-2778.

Position Available

The University of Minnesota invites applications for a faculty position in the Center for Bioethics at the University of Minnesota Medical School. This position is a tenure track position at the Full, Associate, or Assistant Professor level, depending on qualifications. The successful candidate will be an academic physician with a track record of research in bioethics. Applications received prior to February 15, 1999 will be assured of full consideration, though applications will be considered until the position is filled. For more information, please contact: Dianne Bartels, Associate Director, Center for Bioethics, N504 Boynton, 410 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455-0346; tel: 612-624-9440; fax: 612-624-9108; e-mail: barte001@tc.umn.edu.

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.

Kennedy Institute Course

The Kennedy Institute of Ethics is holding a course on "Ethics Committees: Changing Roles and Evolving Issues", March 5-7, 1999. Faculty includes Albert Jonsen, PhD, James F. Childress, PhD, Robert M. Veatch, PhD, Kevin William Wildes, SJ, PhD, and Edmund D. Pellegrino, MD. For information, call the Institute at 202-687-5477; fax: 202-687-8089; webpage: http://guweb.georgetown.edu/kennedy.

Oxford Conference on Family Law

The International Society of Family Law will be holding a Regional Conference on August 27-30, 1999 at St. Anne's College, Oxford. Topics include: pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, genetic engineering, sex selection, cloning, assisted reproductive technology, embryo research and surrogacy, Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, family law and ethics, duties and responsibilities, international legal collaboration, and practical legal problems. For details, contact Ruth Deech, Convenor, St. Anne's College, Oxford University, Oxford, OX2 6HS, UK. Tel: +44=865-274-820; fax: +44-865-274-895; e-mail: sandra.madley@st-annes.ox.ac.uk.

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.

Wear, S.E. "Enhancing Clinician Provision of Informed Consent and Counseling: Some Pedagogical Strategies", Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, Vol. 24, No. 1 (1999), pp. 34-42.

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 timothymad@aol.com. We also need information on upcoming events that would be of interest to Center members. The deadline for the next newsletter is Febuary 15.