University at Buffalo

Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care

Bioethics Bulletin


Editor: Tim Madigan
NOTE NEW E-MAIL ADDRESS

February 2000
Volume Seven, 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: (716) 862-6563 FAX: (716) 862-5649 or (716) 862-8533
Website: http://wings.buffalo.edu/faculty/research/bioethics/
Send E-mail to: Wear@acsu.buffalo.edu.
**********NOTE NEW PHONE AND FAX NUMBERS*************

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.

Visit by Sir Donald Acheson

Thursday, February 3. The SUNY-Buffalo Department of Social & Preventive Medicine is pleased to host the visit of Sir Donald Acheson, K.B.E., M.D., to the SUNY-Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Sir Donald Acheson has played a major role in health and health policy within the United Kingdom and internationally. He is currently Chair of the International Centre for Health and Safety, University College London. He has served as past Chief Medical Officer of England and past president of the British Medical Association. He was the Chair of the Independent Inquiry into Inequalities in Health and Head of the United Kingdom Delegation to the World Health Organization. His work on civil unrest, war, and genocide included appointments as Special Representative for Humanitarian Relief of the World Health Organization, for former Yugoslavia and the Chechyna Region, Russia. In addition to numerous scientific medals and citations, Sir Donald was crowned Knight of the British Empire for outstanding contributions to the field of medicine.
The following activities will take place:

Thursday, February 3:
3:30 - 4:30 PM: Informal reception to meet Sir Donald in Room 180, Farber Hall.

4:30 - 5:30 PM: Sir Donald will address medical faculty, students, and interested individuals in Butler Auditorium, Room 150, Farber Hall. His topic will be: "Health Under Fire: Belfast, Bosnia, and Beyond."

Friday, February 4:
12:30 - 1:30 PM: Informal health-related conversations with Sir Donald will take place in Room 182, Farber Hall. Topics will include issues related to inequalities in health care.

Webpage on Family Health Care Decisions Act

The new Family Health Care Decisions Act website is up and running: http://www.familydecisions.org/. There is also a listserv for those interested in discussing the FHCDA initiative or problems of decision making for incapacitated patients in NYS. If you have any suggestions for the site, or for promoting the bill, please contact Dr. Jack Freer at: jfreer@acsu.buffalo.edu.

Upcoming Lectures

Tuesday, February 8. UB at Sunrise Speakers Series. "Breaking the Genetic Code of Mental Illness." Michele T. Pato, MD and Carlos N. Pato, MD, SUNY-Buffalo Associate Professors of Psychiatry and Co-Directors of the SUNY-Buffalo Laboratory of Psychiatric and Molecular Genetics. Center for Tomorrow, 7:30 - 9:00 AM. $15 per person ($12 per person for Alumni Association Members/Faculty/Staff). For further information, contact Jude Schwendler, 829-2608 ( alujas@acsu.buffalo.edu).

Tuesday, February 15. "Physician Assisted Suicide", a talk by Dr. Timothy Quill, Viahealth Services, Rochester. 7:15 AM-8:45 AM. Blue Lounge, D'Youville College, 320 Porter Avenue, Buffalo. No reservations or registration fee. For further details, contact Dr. Judy Schiffert, Chair, Department of Health Services Administration, D'Youville College, at 881-8101, or e-mail Dr. Paul Johnson: Johnson@dyc.edu.

Wednesday, February 16. "Perinatal Loss." 10:15 AM, Kinch Auditorium, Childrens Hospital Grand Rounds. Presenter: Kathy Skipper, RNC, Perinatal Bereavement Counselor and Coordinator at Millard Fillmore Hospital, and Dennis Weppner, MD, Interim Chair, SUNY-Buffalo. Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics.

Wednesday, March 1. "Patient Autonomy in OB/GYN: When Patients Request Departures From Standards of Practice." 9:15 AM, Kinch Auditorium, Childrens Hospital Grand Rounds. Presenter: Stephen Wear, PhD, Co-Director, SUNY-Buffalo Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care.

Rochester Bioethics Reading Group

The next meeting of the Rochester Bioethics Reading Group will be held on Thursday, February 17 at 6 PM, at the Colgate Rochester Divinity School, Kissell Portrait Lounge, first floor of Strong Hall. Dr. Michael McQuillen will discuss the article "The Persistent Vegetative State and Anencephaly: Problematic Paradigms for Discussing Futility and Rationing" by S. Kirk Payne, MD and Robert M. Taylor, MD, from _Seminars in Neurology_, Vol. 17, No. 3. The January meeting has been rescheduled, due to the illness of the discussant, and has been rescheduled for Thursday, March 9. Dr. Sherrie Lyons will discuss the paper "Morals, Metaphysics, and Heart Transplantation" from the Winter 1998 _Perspectives in Biology and Medicine_. For further information on the meetings, or for copies of the papers to be discussed, please contact Tim Madigan at 716-424-3184; e-mail: timothymad@aol.com.

Dartmouth Institute

The Ethics Institute at Dartmouth College will offer a two-week Faculty Summer Institute (mid to late June) on the ethical, legal, and social implications of the Human Genome Project. Applications are being solicited from two-person interdisciplinary teams and individual faculty. For information, contact Barbara Hillinger at: 603-646-1263; fax: 603-646-2652; e-mail: barbara.hillinger@dartmouth.edu. This program is pending final approval from the National Institutes of Health.

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.