Thursday, October 09, 2008 - Saturday, October 11, 2008

Presented by the Institute of Bioethics at Franciscan University of Steubenville
Jointly sponsored by UPMC Mercy and Allegheny General Hospital.

In some ways, the 21st century is the best of times for working as a healthcare professional. More and better treatments, procedures, diagnostic tools, and biotechnologies give you many powerful options in promoting the health of your patients. But some procedures conflict with the fundamental dignity of the human person and cause troubling moral dilemmas for healthcare professionals.

How do healthcare institutions and professionals distinguish between morally legitimate and morally wrong cooperation with morally evil acts? What should you do if asked to cooperate with wrong procedures or policies?

Moral Conviction vs. Political Pressure, October 9—11, 2008, will help healthcare professionals find their moral bearings in this ever-rising sea of ethical dilemmas. Led by internationally noted Catholic bioethics experts, this conference will provide clear guidance and personal discussion on current controversies. It will also examine the basic spiritual, ethical, and theological value and purposes of healthcare work.

Through Franciscan University’s joint sponsorship with Allegheny General Hospital and UPMC Mercy in Pittsburgh, physicians, nurses, and some other healthcare professionals who attend can receive continuing medical education credits.

Early Bird Registration Rate: $395/person  (postmarked by September 1, 2008)
Regular Rate: $425/person  (postmarked after September 1, 2008)

Click here to download the conference brochure.
Click here to download a registration form.

To read more about the establishment of the Institute of Bioethics at Franciscan University, click here.

You may also call 800-437-8368 or 740-283-6314 
to register and inquire about university student rates.

Program Schedule
Note: Schedule subject to change

Thursday, October 9, 2008

10:00am - 5:00pm   -  Atrium, JC Williams Center
Registration Open

12:05pm - Christ the King Chapel
Campus Mass Available

2:00pm - Gentile Gallery, J.C. Williams Center
Welcome and Opening Remarks

"Sterilization, Contraception, and Protocols for Treatement of Rape Victims"
Patrick Lee

3:45pm - Pugliese Auditorium, Cosmas and Damian Hall
Panel Discussion:  "Moral Conflicts in Clinical Settings"
Mark Stegman
Bishop Anthony Fisher 
Patrick Lee 
 

6:15pm  - Gallery , JC Williams Center
Dinner
 

7:45pm -  Seminar Room, St Joseph Center
Henkels Lecture
"Cooperation, Condoms, and HIV"
Bishop Anthony Fisher


9:15pm - Totino Room, St Joseph Center
Social
 


Friday.  October 10. 2008

7:00am - Atrium of the JC Williams Center 
Breakfast

8:30am - International Lounge, JC Williams Center
"The Person, Moral Truth, and Conscience"
John F. Crosby

10:15am - Breakout Sessions
Cooperation and Institutions
Cooperation and End of Life Issues
Cooperation and Reproductive Issues

12:05pm - Christ the King Chapel
Campus Mass

12:45pm - Gallery, JC Williams Center
Lunch

1:45pm - 
Freedom, Autonomy, and Rational Suicide within End-of-Life Contexts:  A Catholic Perspective
Fr. Christopher Saliga, OP

3:30pm - Breakout Sessions
Cooperation and Institutions
Cooperation and End of Life Issues
Cooperation and Reproductive Issues

5:15pm - Pugliese Auditorium, Cosmas and Damian Hall
Panel Discussion
Joseph Boyle
Fr Christopher Saliga, OP
John F. Crosby

6:45pm - Gallery, JC Williams Center
Dinner

7:45pm - Gallery, JC Williams Center
Moral Conflict in the Hospital Setting:  The Principles 
Joseph Boyle

9:15pm - Atrium, JC Williams Center
Social

Saturday, October 11, 2008

7:00am - Atrium of the JC Williams Center 
Breakfast

8:30am - Gallery, JC Williams Center
"Human Embryology: Scientific Culture versus the Scientific Facts"
Maureen Condic

10:00am - Pugliese Auditorium, Cosmas and Damian Hall
Panel Discussion
Maureen Condic
Fr Christopher Saliga, OP
Patrick Lee

11:30am - Christ the King Chapel
Campus Mass

12:30 - Gallery, JC Williams Center
Lunch

Speakers

Joseph Boyle, PhD is a Professor of Philosophy at The University of Toronto, Fellow and Former Principal (1991-2002) at St. Michael’s College, anMember Joint Centre for Bioethics. Boyle received his BA from LaSalle University in Philadelphia, his Ph. D. in Philosophy from Georgetown. He was a college teacher in residence at Brown University in 1975-76, working with Professor Roderick Chisholm. Boyle does research in the area of moral philosophy, particularly in the Roman Catholic moral tradition. He has collaborated with Germain Grisez and John Finnis in developing and applying a distinctive version of natural law theory. His focus in this work is on practical reason, intention, free will and value incommensurability.

Maureen L. Condic, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah School of Medicine, with an adjunct appointment in the department of Pediatrics.  She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley and postdoctoral training at the University of Minnesota.  Since her appointment at the University of Utah in 1997, Dr. Condic's primary research focus has been the development and regeneration of the nervous system.   In 1999, she was awarded the Basil O'Connor Young Investigator Award for her studies of peripheral nervous system development.  In 2002,  she was named a McKnight Neuroscience of Brain Disorders Investigator, in recognition of her research in the field of adult spinal cord regeneration.  In addition to her scientific research, Dr. Condic teaches both graduate and medical students.   Her teaching focuses primarily on embryonic development, and she directs the University of Utah School of Medicine's course in Human Embryology.  Dr. Condic has a strong commitment to public education and science literacy.  She has published and presented seminars nationally and internationally on science policy and bioethics.  Dr. Condic currently resides in Salt Lake City with her husband and four children.
 

John Crosby is Professor of Philosophy at Franciscan University of Steubenville.  He has published article in several philosophical journals on ethics, phenemonenology, John Henry Newman, and the philosophical thought of Pope John Paul II.  He received his B.A. from Georgetown University in 1966, and his Ph.D. in philosophy from University of Salzburg in 1970.  He has published two books on Personalism:  The Selfhood of the Human Person (1996), and Personalist Papers (2006).

Most Rev Anthony Fisher OP, DD, BA (Hons), LLB, BTheol (Hons), DPhil, is a friar of the Order of Preachers (‘Dominicans’) Auxiliary Bishop of Sydney Australia, and Titular Bishop of Buruni.
Bishop Fisher attended St Michael’s Primary School Lane Cove, Holy Cross College at Ryde, and St Ignatius’ College Riverview in Australia, where he was dux of the College in 1977. Thereafter he studied in the University of Sydney for six years, where he received an honours degree in History and a Law degree before practicing law in a city firm in Sydney. From this time he was also involved in various pro-life groups. 

In 1985 he entered the Dominicans . He studied for the priesthood in Melbourne, receiving an honours degree in theology. He worked for a time at Uniya, and at Holy Name Parish in Wahroonga, Sydney. He was ordained a priest in Sydney in 1991. 

Thereafter Bishop Fisher undertook doctoral studies in bioethics at the University of Oxford until 1995. His D.Phil. was granted for a thesis on Justice in the Allocation of Healthcare. His academic life has included lecturing in several countries and extensively throughout Australia, and publishing many books and articles on bioethics and morality. From 1995 to 2000 he was a lecturer in the Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. 

From 2000 to 2003 he was the foundation director of the John Paul II Institute for Marriage and Family — a post-graduate pontifical institute with nine campuses around the world. The principal work of the Institute is in teaching and research at the cutting edge of questions concerning respect for human life and the dignity of the person, and support for marriage and family life. Bishop Fisher is still a Professor of Bioethics and Moral Theology in the Institute. He is also Deputy-Chancellor of the Catholic Institute of Sydney and a member of Faculty.

Fr. Christopher M. Saliga, O.P., R.N. is a health care chaplain and ethicist with the Dominican Friars Health Care Ministry of New York, Saint Catherine of Siena Church and Priory. Fr. Christopher’s clinical experience includes four years (1984-88) in the United States Army as a Combat Medic and Paratrooper with both conventional and unconventional American and Korean forces.  He has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the Franciscan University of Steubenville (1992).  In 1992 he accepted a commission as a United States Navy Nurse Corps Officer. From 1992-6, Fr. Christopher spent the majority of his time serving at Naval Medical Center, Oakland, CA in both surgical and internal medicine departments.  He also served briefly aboard the USS New Orleans (an amphibious assault ship) and the USS Carl Vinson (an aircraft carrier).  He helped train and certify more than 200 Navy medical personnel (Fleet Hospital 6) in basic trauma life support, basic cardiac life support, and small weapons familiarization (9mm pistol, and M16 A2 rifle) prior to their deploying to Zagreb, Croatia in support of the United Nations Protective Forces, Bosnia. Fr. Christopher has lectured on a variety of topics in medical and/or sexual ethics at: at various hospitals, medical schools  and universities, and has written widely on end-of-life care issues. 

Dr. Mark Stegman graduated magna cum laude with an Honors Bachelor of Arts in Classical Languages from Xavier University in 1977.  He completed his medical education at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, earning the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1981.  He completed postgraduate residency training in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Bethesda Hospital, Cincinnati, in 1985.

After nearly 8 years of private practice, he began fellowship training at Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction in February, 1993, and completed the fellowship in early 1994.  He remained as an Associate Medical Consultant at the Institute through April, 1995.  Since then, he has engaged in the private practice of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Infertility using NaProTechnology (Natural Procreative Technology) in several locations.  He currently practices at the Center for Women’s Health in Camp Hill, Pennsylvania.

Dr. Stegman is a Senior Fellow of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person.  He also serves on the Board of Directors of the International Institute for Restorative Reproductive Medicine (IIRRM), which supports and conducts research into NaProTechnology and similar methods of restorative reproductive medicine.

Patrick Lee is the John N. and Jamie D. McAleer Professor of Bioethics, and Director of the Institute of Bioethics, at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and Director of Bioethics Projects at the Witherspoon Institute. He is a graduate of University of Dallas and Niagara University, and received his Ph. D. in philosophy at Marquette University in 1980. 

Lee’s books include Abortion and Unborn Human Life (Catholic University of America Press, 1996), and, with Robert P. George, Body-Self Dualism in Contemporary Ethics and Politics (Cambridge University Press, 2008). His articles and review essays have appeared in American Journal of Jurisprudence, Bioethics, Faith and Philosophy, Philosophy, and other scholarly journals, as well as popular journals and online magazines.