Bioethics Conference
Leading Bioethicists, Medical Professionals Examine Suffering, Death
Friday, March 26, 2010 - Sunday, March 28, 2010
"A bioethics conference on suffering and death could not be more timely, given the recent passage of the health care bill," said University President Father Terence Henry, TOR, welcoming presenters and participants to “Ethical Issues in Suffering and Death,” a conference for health care professionals, March 26-28, 2010, at Franciscan University of Steubenville.
Presentations covered topics from advance directives for end of life care to the moral and spiritual dimensions of suffering, from existing assisted suicide laws in the Pacific Northwest to a growing "duty to die" movement in the bioethics field, but all the discussions centered around a key question: "Do you commodify life, or does life have an intrinsic value transcending mere utilitarian calculations?" said Dr. Andrew Trew, member of the Internal Review Board at the Cleveland Clinic. "This is the central problem of bioethics today."
According to Rita Marker, executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, the question is more than hypothetical. She informed conference goers that Oregon had been contacting participants in the state health care plan and telling them that while the state would not cover the cost of their medication, it would cover and wanted to educate them about the option of assisted suicide.
"Once you make the crime of assisted suicide into a medical treatment," said Marker, "it is the same as any other medical treatment—except it's the least expensive option."
Bioethicists are pushing the logic of commodity and cost in considering the value of human life, noted Trew. "There's been an influx in bioethics literature of these articles that say, 'Useless lives have a duty to die.' It's almost as though there's a trans-Atlantic wave of duty to die advocacy."
But human life has been reduced to a commodity at its beginning, not just its end. "Perhaps the scariest thing I've seen as a bioethicist was the in vitro fertilization [IVF] storage unit," said Trew. "The original IVF treatments were all engineered by using one embryo. Now we're creating these massive surpluses of embryos.
"Obviously if we're going to dispose of embryos, we're going to end up taking life."
How did we reach this point? "We've based bioethics on a strongly autonomous model," said Trew. "The idea of autonomy is pushed to such an extreme by the secular culture that we're losing sight of the issues of love and concern for the person."
But the secular focus on autonomy has not always dominated the discussion. "The National Catholic Bioethics Center is testimony to the fact that the Catholic Church was proactive in the field of bioethics, not reactive," said Dr. John Haas, president of the Bioethics Center, which was founded in 1972.
Haas, who delivered the annual Henkels Lecture on bioethics, said a central point made during the conference is "the extent to which the positions of the Church are confirmed and compatible with science and with the received moral traditions of the West, and the extent to which that is under extensive challenge by the secularist mindset."
Conference-goers participated in the ongoing examination and renewal of that tradition, drawing from the Catholic moral experience for guidance. Introducing the theme of the conference, Dr. Patrick Lee, director of the Franciscan University Institute of Bioethics, said, "Christians aren't unaccustomed to thinking about suffering and death—we are supposed to think about these human realities and prepare ourselves."
However, the Church's responsibilities extend beyond engaging the philosophical discussion around the life issues, said Dr. Theresa Collett, professor of law at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. "The Church has a responsibility to lessen the suffering within the world. The more we do as the Body of Christ, the less the government has to do."
This was the fifth conference sponsored by the Franciscan University Institute of Bioethics since its founding in 2007.
Six well-known experts addressed a wide range of medical ethics issues:
 Joseph Boyle, PhD, is a Professor of Philosophy at The University of Toronto, Fellow and Former Principal (1991-2002) at St. Michael’s College, a Member of the 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.
Dr. Teresa Collett, professor of law at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota, spoke on "The Value of Life and State Action." Collett has testified before committees of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, as well as before legislative committees in several states. She has served as special attorney general for the states of Oklahoma and Kansas, as well as assisting other state attorneys general in defending laws protecting human life and marriage.
 Dr. John Haas will explain "Difficulties in End-of-Life Care Decisions." Haas is the president of the National Catholic Bioethics Center. He has testified before the Joint Judiciary Committee of the Massachusetts Legislature on physician-assisted suicide and before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health and Public Safety on the subject of human cloning. Dr. Haas gave the Henkels Lecture on Friday evening, March 26th at 7:30pm in Pugliese Auditorium, Cosmas and Damian Hall.
 Brother Daniel Sulmasy, OFM, MD, PhD, spoke on "Appropriate Responses to Different Types of Suffering at the End of Life." Sulmasy is a Franciscan friar, medical doctor, and noted bioethicist. He is editor in chief of the prestigious Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics, holder of the Sisters of Charity Chair of Ethics at St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan, and professor of medicine and director of the Bioethics Institute of New York Medical College.
Dr. Rita Marker gave an overview of "Current End-of-Life
Ethical Issues and Dilemmas." Marker is the executive director of the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Deadly Compassion.
Dr. Andrew Trew’s plenary talk on “Suffering, Death, and the Doctor-Patient Relationship” stems from his work as a member of the Internal Review Board at the Cleveland Clinic. Trew also teaches bioethics at John Carroll University and St. Mary Seminary for the Diocese of Cleveland and recently participated in Pontifical Council for Life meetings at the Vatican.
SCHEDULE:
(subject to change)
Friday March 26, 2010
10:00 am - 5:00 pm Registration Open, Lower Atrium JC Williams Center
12:05 pm Campus Mass. Christ the King Chapel, All welcome
2:00 pm - 7:30 pm Welcome and Opening Prayer, Gentile Gallery, JC Williams Center
Rita Marker, JD: "Current End - of - Life Ethical Issues and Dilemmas"
Break Out Sessions
Hors d'Oeuvres
Dinner
7:30 pm - 10:30 pm HENKELS LECTURE: Dr. John Haas: "Difficulties in End-of-Life Care
Decisions" Pugliese Auditorium, Cosmas and Damian Science Building.
Social
Saturday, March 27, 2010
7:30 am Breakfast, Gentile Gallery
8:15 am - 1:00 pm Brother Dr. Dan Sulmasy: "Appropriate Responses to Different Types of
Suffering at the End of Life"
Mass
Panel Discussion
1:00 pm - 7:00 pm Lunch, Gentile Gallery
Dr. Joseph Boyle
Break Out Sessions
Panel Discussion
7:00 pm - 11:00 pm Dinner, Gentile Gallery
Teresa Collett: "The Value of Life and State Actions
Social
Sunday, March 28, 2010
8:30 am - 9:30 am Mass
9:30 am - 2:00 pm Breakfast, Gentile Gallery
Dr. Andrew Trew: "Suffering, Death and the Doctor, Patient Relationship"
Panel Discussion
Lunch
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