bioethics.com

Learn More About Columbia's M.S. in Bioethics Program from Distinguished Faculty
2025-04-02 18:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Online
Columbia University’s Master of Science in Bioethics program grounds students in interdisciplinary approaches and models to address the most pressing bioethical challenges. The Bioethics program prepares students to act as responsible and responsive leaders in this new and ever-growing field.
Join us for this session in which distinguished Bioethics faculty will provide you with insight into the program and answer any questions you may have about the courses they lead at Columbia University.
Speakers:
Robert Klitzman, M.D., David N. Hoffman, J.D., Arthur Kuflik, PhD, Barbra Bluestone Rothschild, M.D., and Anne Zimmerman, J.D., M.S., CIPP/US, CEET

Doctor, Will You Pray for Me? Medicine, Chaplains, and Healing the Whole Person
2025-03-31 16:00 - 17:00 (America/New_York) | Hybrid, PA
About the Talk
Based on in-depth research, this talk explores how patients today from varied backgrounds—from evangelical to atheist, agnostic, and “nothing in particular”—confront spiritual, existential, and religious challenges, and how hospital chaplains often help. These spiritual care providers play critical roles assisting patients, families, and staff, but knowledge about them and how they assist patients remains relatively low. This talk presents the profound insights they have to share.
About the Speaker
Robert Klitzman, MD, is a Professor of Psychiatry at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Joseph Mailman School of Public Health, and the Director of the Online and In-person Bioethics Masters and Certificate Programs at Columbia University. He has written over 190 scientific journal articles, ten books, and numerous chapters on critical issues in bioethics regarding doctor-patient relationships and communication, research, genetics, mental health, pandemics, and other areas. His books include Doctor, Will You Pray for Me?: Medicine, Chaplains and Healing the Whole Person and When Doctors Become Patients.
Dr. Klitzman has received numerous awards for his work, including fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the Aaron Diamond Foundation, the Hastings Center, and the Rockefeller Foundation. He has been a gubernatorial appointee to the Empire State Stem Cell Commission, and the Ethics Working Group of the HIV Prevention Trials Network, and served on the U.S. Department of Defense’s Research Ethics Advisory Panel. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a regular contributor to The New York Times, CNN, and Psychology Today.
The lecture may be attended virtually at this Zoom link: https://columbiacuimc.zoom.us/j/98286753954

CARE Panel: The Ethics of Researching Psychedelics
2025-03-24 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Chicago) | Online
The study of psychedelics as therapeutic tools raises profound ethical questions about medicine, society, and patient care. This virtual panel brings together experts to explore critical questions: How do historical stigma and cultural context shape the development of psychedelic therapies? What role should public perception play in evaluating medical applications? How can researchers best protect potentially vulnerable participants while advancing scientific understanding? Join us for this nuanced discussion on developing ethical frameworks for responsible psychedelic research.
Featuring Panelists:
Andrew Peterson, PhD (Assistant Professor of Philosophy, George Mason University & Affiliate Researcher, Penn Memory Center, UPenn)
Subhdeep Virk, MD (Clinical Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health, OSUMC)
Stacey Armstrong, PhD (Senior Researcher & Associate Director of the Center for Psychedelic Drug Research and Education, OSU)
This event will be presented with automated closed captions. If you wish to request traditional CART services or other accommodations, please contact Layne Garrelts at garrelts.6@osu.edu. Requests made by 10 days prior to this event will generally allow us to provide seamless access, but the university will make every effort to meet requests made after this date.
Register here: https://osu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8BeICGnSR0C14L76QBLDNw#/registration

30th annual Healthcare Ethics Consortium conference: Shaping the Future: Healthcare Ethics 2035
2025-03-24 08:00 - 2025-03-25 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Hybrid, PA
We will focus on 4 major topics through ½ day sessions on March 24 & 25, 2025:

Trust and Sources of Truth
What Will be Valued in 2035: Balancing Indicators of Effectiveness with the Human Experience
Centering Patient Experiences by Sharing Their Stories
Emerging Issues in Healthcare and Ethics (professional roles, long-term care, critical care, virtual nursing, AI…)

Our opening speakers are Thaddeus Pope, JD, PhD, HEC-C, Professor of Law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, and Bonzo Reddick, MD, MPH, FAAFP, District Health Director, family physician, and Professor of Community Medicine and Family Medicine at Mercer University School of Medicine, and multidisciplinary perspectives will be included throughout the 2 days.
Please see our full agenda and speaker list below, attached and at: https://hcethics.org/speakers
In addition to excellent speakers, our focus is on participant engagement, time for discussion, and identifying frameworks and models relevant to practice.
We welcome in-person and virtual participation during the 2-day conference.
Our onsite location is the Emory Conference Center on the Emory University campus in Atlanta.
Conference information, including the full agenda and registration information, is available at www.hcethics.org/annualconference.
CEUs:
CME:
The Emory University School of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum of 13 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s)™.
Social Work Hours:
The Georgia Society for Clinical Social Work (GSCSW) has approved 13 Ethic Hours for this hybrid conference.
CNE: We are awaiting word on Nursing CNE hours.
The registration deadline for In-Person attendance is Monday, March 7 and the deadline for Virtual participation is Friday, March 21.

Healthcare Ethics Consortium 2025 Annual Conference: Shaping the Future: Healthcare Ethics 2035
2025-03-24 08:00 - 2025-03-25 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Hybrid, PA
We hope that you will join us for our 30th annual Healthcare Ethics Consortium conference, hosted by the Emory University Center for Ethics.
The conference will address Shaping the Future: Healthcare Ethics 2035.
We will focus on 4 major topics on March 24 & 25, 2025

Trust and sources of truth
What will be valued in 2035?
Centering patient experiences by sharing their stories
Emerging issues

Our opening speakers are Thaddeus Pope, JD, PhD, HEC-C, Professor of Law at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, and Bonzo Reddick, MD, MPH, FAAFP, District Health Director, family physician, and Professor of Community Medicine and Family Medicine at Mercer University School of Medicine, and multidisciplinary perspectives will be included throughout the 2 days.
In addition to excellent speakers, our focus is on participant engagement, time for discussion, and identifying frameworks and models relevant to practice.
We welcome in-person and virtual participation during the 2-day conference.
Our onsite location is the Emory Conference Center on the Emory University campus in Atlanta.
Conference information, including registration information, is available at www.hcethics.org/annualconference.
The registration deadline for In-Person attendance is Monday, March 7 and the deadline for Virtual participation is Friday, March 21.
Email hec@emory.edu with questions.

MBE Alumni Colloquium: Takunda Matose: “Justice and The Monty Hall Problem of Public Health”
2025-03-20 16:00 - 18:00 (America/Chicago) | Hybrid, PA
The Master of Bioethics Program at the University of Pennsylvania Invites you to join us for our next MBE/MSME Alumni Colloquium speaker Takunda Matose, PhD, MBE
BIO: Takunda Matose is a philosopher and bioethicist who is a Research Assistant Professor at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center’s Ethics Center. His research lies primarily at the intersection of political philosophy, bioethics, and the philosophy of race. He is interested in racial health justice and has written about the racial dimension of pandemics, maternal health disparities, health care in carceral contexts, and public health in Africa.
This event is hybrid. To attend virtually, please register here

Institute for Health Law, Bioethics, and Policy First Annual Symposium
2025-03-20 09:00 - 16:30 (America/New_York) | Hybrid, PA
The first annual conference of Touro University’s Institute for Health Law, Bioethics, and Policy will focus on Reproductive Health Policy. This conference will be held on Thursday, March 20, 2025 at the Touro University Main Campus, at 3 Times Square in New York City with a virtual option to attend via Zoom.
This symposium seeks to address the current landscape of reproductive policy. Throughout the day, we will address three key topics in the field including in vitro fertilization, the effects of Dobbs on access to care and crisis pregnancy centers. The details of each panel’s discussion are as follows:
• Post-Dobbs Access to Care: Examining shifting OBGYN residency patterns and increased pregnancy risks resulting from policy barriers.
• IVF and Legal Definitions: Exploring how legal definitions of embryos shape the regulation of reproductive technologies.
• Crisis Pregnancy Centers: Analyzing the operations of unlicensed pregnancy centers and the legal landscape that enables their functioning.
KEYNOTE SPEAKER:
Eli Y Adashi
Professor of Medical Science, Brown University
Former Dean of Medicine and Biological Sciences at Brown University, Dr. Adashi, an academic physician-executive, is a graduate of Tel Aviv University School of Medicine and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health program in Health Care Management. A former president of the Society for Reproductive Endocrinologists (SRE), the Society for Gynecologic Investigation (SGI), and the American Gynecological and Obstetrical Society (AGOS), Dr. Adashi also served as Examiner and Director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG).

University of Louisville’s 2024-2025 Virtual Health Care Ethics Speaker Series: "Queer Crip Ecologies of Dementia"
2025-03-19 11:00 - 12:00 (America/Kentucky/Louisville) | Online
Part of the intellectual life of the Health Care Ethics program is our ongoing online lecture series. This themed series consists of free and open virtual lectures/discussions occurring monthly during the academic year. Presentations are attended by students, staff, faculty, health professionals, and the general public. All events are free and open to the public. NEW! Events are accredited for Continuing Education credit for physicians (CMEs) and nurses (CNEs).
Speaker:
Kim Q. Hall, Professor, University of Alberta
I earned a B.A. in Philosophy at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, where I was also the first student to graduate with a certificate in what was then called Women’s Studies. I earned an M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy at State University of New York (SUNY) at Binghamton. Prior to coming to the University of Alberta, I was Professor of Philosophy and a faculty affiliate in the Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies and Appalachian Studies programs at Appalachian State University, where I also served as Humanities Council Coordinator (2012-2014) and Director of the Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies Program (2014-2017). Throughout my career, I have been interested in efforts to enhance equity, diversity, and inclusiveness in the profession. For example, I have served as Co-Chair of the Advisory Board for Philosophy in an Inclusive (PIKSI) Key and as an inaugural member of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (SPEP) Committee on Accessibility, Disability, and Inclusion. I am excited to join the University of Alberta’s Department of Philosophy as Professor of Philosophy and to serve as Interim Director of the Institute for Intersectionality Studies. If I had to choose one thing that I have enjoyed about my career so far, it’s the opportunity to continue to learn and think with others about matters of importance in our lives and world.
Event link: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/5d676b16-b49d-493a-808a-138fc0e1570e@dd246e4a-5434-4e15-8ae3-91ad9797b209

Continuous Deep Sedation in Palliative Care
2025-03-19 08:00 - 17:00 (Europe/London) | Online
Welcome to the Bios Centre Newsletter. We’re delighted to report that Professor Daniel Sulmasy will be speaking to us on Wednesday 19 March on the topic of ‘Continuous Deep Sedation in Palliative Care.
Professor Sulmasy is Director of the Kennedy Institute of Ethics and a Senior Research Scholar at Georgetown University. He holds a joint appointment at the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics and is the inaugural André Hellegers Professor of Biomedical Ethics, with co-appointments in the Departments of
Philosophy and Medicine at Georgetown.
We look forward to a very interesting discussion and hope that you can join us. See below for a Zoom link for the meeting. Please write to info@bioscentre.org or to Dr Ilaria Bertini at ibertini@bioscentre.org if you have any questions about the meeting.
Zoom info.: https://bioscentre.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=e07238f83e6d8887ac27e1592&id=4304de0134&e=9fc77c0904
Meeting ID: 842 2765 7290
Passcode: [REDACTED]

ELSI Friday Forum: Enhancing Genetic Screening Access through Community Partnerships in the Cleveland African American Prostate Cancer Project
2025-03-14 14:00 - 15:00 (America/New_York) | Online
Join us on 03/14/25 at 12pm ET for the next ELSI Friday Forum: Enhancing Genetic Screening Access through Community Partnerships in the Cleveland African American Prostate Cancer Project, with our speakers:

Sydney N. Evans, MSW, C-CHW
Erika S. Trapl, PhD
Moderated by Marsha Michie, PhD

Registration link: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/T926pH_NTLeL-DBkQ1kzAA
Abstract: Genetic screening is crucial for identifying genetic risk factors for disease, but marginalized groups often have low participation due to lack of access, awareness, and mistrust of healthcare systems. There is a need for intentional collaboration with community partners to address these concerns and allow community voices to actively participate in the design and implementation of programs. The Cleveland African American Prostate Cancer Project (CAAPP) is a partnership of academics, clinicians, and community partners working together to combine prostate cancer and genetic screening, leveraging local barbershops as trusted hubs. Barbers were trained as health advisors, connecting Black men over 40 with screening services. This session will explore how building relationships, leveraging existing clinical and community partners, and utilizing community health navigators can overcome barriers like trust, cost, and data ownership, increasing participation and improving preventive health measures in marginalized communities.

Professionalism & the Future of Medicine: What role does the health care delivery organization play?
2025-03-14 12:30 - 14:00 (America/Chicago) | Online
Professionalism is the basis of medicine’s contract with society. However, increasingly, genuine medical professionalism seems to have come under threat as market and bureaucratic forces shape the practice and delivery of medicine. How has the health care organization contributed to this environment, and how should the health care organization operate in relation to medical professionalism? What mechanisms might facilitate organizational accountability to professionalism? Join us for a seminar and discussion exploring concepts of organizational professionalism and the future of medicine.
Featuring Fred Hafferty, PhD and Tom Nasca, MD, MACP, and moderated by Kelsey Berry, PhD.

The 50th Anniversary of the Declassification of Homosexuality as a Disease: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going?
2025-03-13 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | Online
Fifty years ago, in 1974, the American Psychiatric Association, following controversial debates, held an unprecedented vote to decide that homosexuality should no longer be listed as a “disease” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Yet controversies have continued over how medicine and society should view queer identities, including, most recently, transgender individuals.
Join us and a panel of experts for an exploration of these historical and ongoing tensions.
Speakers:
Ronald Bayer, Ph.D., Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Semafor
Tia Powell, M.D., Professor of Epidemiology and Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center; Cofounder, Slow Code Media
Barbra Bluestone Rothschild, M.D., Lecturer, Bioethics, Columbia University
Moderated By:
Robert Klitzman, M.D., Program Director, Bioethics; Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
Registered guests will receive a Zoom link prior to the event.
For further information, please contact Marie Gugnishev, mg4441@columbia.edu.
To obtain additional information about program offerings at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies, please contact an Admissions Counselor at inquire@sps.columbia.edu.
If you require closed captioning, sign-language interpretation, or any other disability accommodations, please contact Disability Services, disability@columbia.edu, at least 10 days in advance.
This event is open to individuals irrespective of identity and sex.

The 50th Anniversary of the Declassification of Homosexuality As a Disease: Where Are We Today?
2025-03-13 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Online
Fifty years ago, in 1974, the American Psychiatric Association, following controversial debates, held an unprecedented vote to decide that homosexuality should no longer be listed as a “disease” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Yet controversies have continued over how medicine and society should view queer identities, including, most recently, transgender individuals.
Join us and a panel of experts for an exploration of these historical and ongoing tensions.
Speakers:
Ronald Bayer, Ph.D., Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Semafor
Tia Powell, M.D., Professor of Epidemiology and Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center; Cofounder, Slow Code Media
Moderated By:
Robert Klitzman, M.D., Program Director, Bioethics; Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
This event is cosponsored by the Making Gay History organization.
Making Gay History is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that addresses the absence of substantive, in-depth LGBTQ+-inclusive American history from the public discourse and the classroom. By sharing the stories of those who helped a despised minority take its rightful place in society as full and equal citizens, we aim to encourage connection, pride, and solidarity within the LGBTQ+ community—and to provide an entry point for both allies and the general public to its largely hidden history.
Registered guests will receive a Zoom link prior to the event.
For further information, please contact Katherine Julia Mendis at kjm2148@columbia.edu

The 50th Anniversary of the Declassification of Homosexuality As a Disease: Where Are We Today?
2025-03-13 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Online
Fifty years ago, in 1974, the American Psychiatric Association, following controversial debates, held an unprecedented vote to decide that homosexuality should no longer be listed as a “disease” in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Yet controversies have continued over how medicine and society should view queer identities, including, most recently, transgender individuals.
Join us and a panel of experts for an exploration of these historical and ongoing tensions.
Speakers:
Ronald Bayer, Ph.D., Professor of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University
Gina Chua, Executive Editor, Semafor
Tia Powell, M.D., Professor of Epidemiology and Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center; Cofounder, Slow Code Media
Moderated By:
Robert Klitzman, M.D., Program Director, Bioethics; Professor of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center
This event is cosponsored by the Making Gay History organization.
Making Gay History is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that addresses the absence of substantive, in-depth LGBTQ+-inclusive American history from the public discourse and the classroom. By sharing the stories of those who helped a despised minority take its rightful place in society as full and equal citizens, we aim to encourage connection, pride, and solidarity within the LGBTQ+ community—and to provide an entry point for both allies and the general public to its largely hidden history.
Registered guests will receive a Zoom link prior to the event.
For further information, please contact Katherine Julia Mendis at kjm2148@columbia.edu.
For additional information about program offerings at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies, please contact an Admissions Counselor at 212-854-9666 or inquire@sps.columbia.edu.
Columbia University makes every effort to accommodate individuals with disabilities. Please notify the Office of Disability Services at least 10 days in advance if you require closed captioning, sign-language interpretation, or any other disability accommodations. Disability Services can be reached at 212-854-2388 or disability@columbia.edu.
For questions about health and safety, please visit Columbia University’s Hub for Emergency Preparedness for the latest policies, as they are subject to change.

Pregnancy, Privacy & Politics: The HIPAA in the room
2025-03-13 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Denver) | Online
You are warmly invited to attend the upcoming Ethics Grand Rounds, hosted by the Clinical Ethics Education Council at the CU Center for Bioethics and Humanities. This live virtual event will feature a compelling discussion led by Heather Straub, MD, Associate Professor of Maternal-Fetal Medicine at the University of Colorado Medical School.
Learning Objectives:

Describe historic ethical concerns around implementation of HIPAA.
Understand the ethical basis of the New Privacy Rule for support of Reproductive Healthcare.
Describe specific concerns for providers in states with laws supporting abortion vs states with laws restricting abortion.

CME Credits will be offered for live participation. The University of Colorado School of Medicine designates this live activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit™.
For additional information or questions, please contact Gianna Morales .

Sutter Health Bioethics Education
2025-03-12 12:00 - 13:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | Online
A Conversation About Deciding for Others
In memory of our co-founder Albert Jonsen, Ph.D., Sutter’s Program in Medicine and Human Values launched Roots of Bioethics, a speaker series highlighting early pioneers in the field.
For our third session, please join a conversation on medical decision making with Bernard Lo, M.D., president emeritus of medicine and director emeritus of the Program in Medical Ethics at the University of California, San Francisco, and Sutter Clinical Ethicist Kelsey Gip, Ph.D.
PMHV Co-founder and Senior Scholar William Andereck, M.D., will moderate the panel.

Ethics Grand Rounds: Ethical Approaches to Migrant Health: A Membership Based Account
2025-03-11 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Hybrid, PA
The ethical imperative to protect the health of migrants in the United States is grounded in multiple frameworks, including human rights, public health ethics, and justice-based theories. This Ethics Grand Rounds will focus on a membership-based account, which argues that undocumented immigrants are embedded members of society who contribute economically, socially, and culturally—entitling them to health protections that protect their opportunities. Using restrictive migrant health policies as a case study, Dr. Thalia Porteny will examine how exclusionary policies that limit access to healthcare coverage result in poorer health outcomes, particularly in mental health. She will present an evidence base demonstrating how these policies exacerbate disparities, increase healthcare costs, and undermine ethical commitments to reciprocity and fairness. Ultimately, this talk will explore policy pathways and advocacy efforts that align with ethical principles and public health goals, emphasizing the role of clinicians, institutions, and policymakers in promoting more inclusive approaches to migrant health.
Join us on March 11th for a conversation on Migrant Health with Thalia Porteny, PhD, MSc, and Division of Ethics Chief Sandra Soo-Jin Lee, PhD. The discussion will include a Q&A session with guest speaker Eunice Rendón Cárdenas, PhD, an expert in migrant health and the Executive Director of Agenda Migrante and Red VIRAL.
Ethics Grand Rounds is a series organized by the Division of Ethics in the Department of Medical Humanities & Ethics. The goal of Ethics Grand Rounds is to engage our community of health professionals, scholars, scientists and trainees across career stages and disciplines by elevating important topics and debates in medical ethics that relate to clinical practice, research, implementation, and education.

Ethics and the Law and Regulation of Medical AI
2025-03-07 12:30 - 13:30 (America/Chicago) | Online
Artificial intelligence is poised for impact on every aspect of healthcare, healthcare systems, and clinical practice. As use cases emerge, careful analysis of ethical concerns and new legal and regulatory tools are needed. This conversation among experts will explore the ethical considerations for medical and consider current and possible legal and regulatory approaches.
Featuring I. Glenn Cohen, JD and Claudia E. Haupt, PhD, JSD, LLM. Moderated by Mason Marks, MD, JD.

Ethics Grand Rounds: “Graphic Narratives, Comics, and Illustration in Medicine and Medical Ethics”
2025-03-06 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Online
Speaker: Sherine Hamdy, PhD, University of California, Irvine
Dr. Hamdy is a Professor of Anthropology at the University of California Irvine, where she joined the faculty in 2017. Prior to that she was a tenured faculty member at Brown University where she taught since 2006. She is the author of Our Bodies Belong to God (University of California 2012), co-author of Lissa: a story of friendship, medical promise, and revolution (University of Toronto Press 2017) and co-creator of Landing a Place (Penguin Random house 2026). She teaches courses on medical anthropology and is currently working on a project about women comics creators in the Arab world and its diaspora.
Talk Description: Medical journals and curricula have embraced the emerging field of graphic medicine — narrative medicine that juxtaposes images and text. Patients of chronic illness, caretakers, and health care practitioners have all created valuable accounts in this medium about their struggles to maintain their humanity in the often de-humanizing world of clinical encounters. In this talk, Dr. Hamdy takes us through myriad examples to illustrate the rich capacities of graphic narratives to question day-to-day medical practices and experiences of chronic illness to give us new perspectives on disability, patienthood, caretaking and healing.

Reasonable Variability or Unethical Inequity: Exploring Ethics of Policy Differences at Hospitals
2025-02-28 12:30 - 14:00 (America/Chicago) | Online
Hospital policies have a fundamental role in the care of patients, yet significant variability exists across hospitals in core patient-facing policies. In this Clinical Ethics Conversation, we will learn from clinical ethics leaders about variations in policy across their institutions (using policies addressing potentially inappropriate/non-beneficial treatment as a case example) and examine ethical arguments that support or oppose such variability.
Featuring Kerri Kennedy, DBe, RN, HEC-C, Lindsay Semler, DNP, RN, CCRN, HEC-C, David Sontag JD, MBE, HEC-C, and Kayte Spector-Bagdady JD, MBE, HEC-C. Moderated by Jonathan M. Marron, MD, MPH, HEC-C.

Person Place Thing with Randy Cohen featuring Robert Klitzman, M.D.
2025-02-27 18:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Inperson, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway,, Dayton,, OH, 45435, United States
On Thursday, February 27, Dr. Robert Klitzman, Director of the M.S. in Bioethics program at the Columbia University School of Professional Studies, will join Emmy Award-winning writer Randy Cohen on Cohen’s public radio podcast Person Place Thing.
Person Place Thing is an interview show based on the idea that people are especially engaging when they speak not directly about themselves but about something they care about. Guests talk about one person, one place, and one thing that is important to them.
Cohen’s conversation with Dr. Klitzman will be recorded in front of a live audience and released as a podcast episode at a later date. Free and open to the public.
About the speakers

Robert Klitzman, M.D. is a professor of psychiatry at the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and the Joseph Mailman School of Public Health and the director of the online and in-person Bioethics master’s and certificate programs at Columbia University. He has written over 180 scientific journal articles, ten books, and numerous chapters on critical issues in bioethics regarding doctor-patient relationships and communication, research, genetics, mental health, pandemics, and other areas.
Dr. Klitzman has received numerous awards for his work, including fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund, the Aaron Diamond Foundation, The Hastings Center, and The Rockefeller Foundation. He has been a gubernatorial appointee to the Empire State Stem Cell Commission and the Ethics Working Group of the HIV Prevention Trials Network and has served on the U.S. Department of Defense’s Research Ethics Advisory Panel. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a regular contributor to The New York Times, CNN, and Psychology Today.

Randy Cohen’s first professional work was writing humor pieces, essays, and stories for newspapers and magazines (The New Yorker, Harpers, the Atlantic, Young Love Comics). His first television work was writing for “Late Night With David Letterman” for which he won three Emmy awards. His fourth Emmy was for his work on Michael Moore’s “TV Nation.” He received a fifth Emmy as a result of a clerical error, and he kept it. For twelve years he wrote “The Ethicist,” a weekly column for the New York Times Magazine. In 2010, his first play, “The Punishing Blow,” ran at New York’s Clurman Theater. He is currently the creator and host of Person Place Thing, a public radio program.
To obtain additional information about program offerings at Columbia University’s School of Professional Studies, please contact an Admissions Counselor at inquire@sps.columbia.edu.
Registered guests must enter campus at WIEN GATE at 411 West 116h Street and allow additional time for campus access and event check-in. Guests who have not registered in advance and do not have an active Columbia University ID (CUID) will not be permitted on campus. Upon arrival at the gate, all registered guests must show:

Active CUID holders: a government-issued ID and active Columbia University ID
Non-CUID holders (including all Alumni): a government-issued ID and the QR code issued by CU Guest Access prior to the event. This QR code is valid only for this event and the name must match that on the guest’s government-issued ID.

Please email sps-events@columbia.edu with questions regarding campus access for this event.

Integrity in the Concept and Determination of Brain Death: Recent Challenges in Medicine, Law, and Ethics
2025-02-27 08:00 - 2025-02-28 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Inperson, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway,, Dayton,, OH, 45435, United States
This symposium will address concerns posed by the American Academy of Neurology’s issuance of updated 2023 Guidelines after an unsuccessful effort to revise the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA).
Participants will a unique opportunity to learn about, discuss, and strive to better address several key issues including:

How/Can we ensure, with moral certitude, that patients determined to be dead by neurologic criteria are dead according to the standards of a sound Christian anthropology and the law?
How/Can testing protocols for brain death be improved to accurately, consistently, and efficiently identify which patients are dead by neurologic criteria and which are not?
What challenges might be encountered and appropriately addressed if implementing more rigorous clinical standards and protocols results in some delay to the process of vital organ recovery?
What ethical measures and resources are required to better uphold key ethical goods including patient dignity, informed consent, and respect for conscience?

The symposium will feature leading scholars on the core clinical, anthropological, and ethical issues at stake and will feature plenty of time for dialogue.
This symposium shall be conducted to achieve fair representation of distinct positions, robust dialogue among participants, and practical results.

Ethics of End-of-Life Care: Contributions from the Arts and Humanities
2025-02-26 08:00 - 2025-03-02 17:00 (America/Chicago) | Piazza S. Calisto 16, Trastevere, Rome, Piazza S. Calisto 16,, Trastevere, Rome, Italy
Objective
Care for the dying and their loved ones is a most rewarding but also challenging endeavor. Such care can evoke complex moral questions that often defy standard methods of ethical analysis. In this seminar, we enter into dialogue with the arts and humanities to gain new insights about the human condition, find meaning in the final phase of life, and achieve a truly dignified death.
Approach
Whereas internationally renowned experts will introduce the themes, the core of this seminar will be a sustained discussion among all participants. Conversations will extend from the classroom to cultural excursions in the city of Rome and many shared meals. Participants are encouraged to prepare a short presentation to stimulate still more dialogue. Registration is limited to 20 persons. Combination with the Annual Conference of the Pontifical Academy for Life Immediately following the seminar, participants can attend the two-day annual conference of the Pontifical Academy for Life (3-4 March 2025). The specific topic of the 2025 meeting has yet to be announced. Attendance of this meeting may also include an opportunity to join in the Academyís private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican (depending on his health and schedule).
Teaching Staff
Jos Welie, MA, MMedS, JD, PhD, President of the St. AndrÈ International Center for Ethics and Integrity (France) and Professor Emeritus of Medical Humanities (USA) (Seminar Director) Andrea Ciucci, PhD, Pontifical Academy for Life (Vatican City) Andrea De Santis, PhD, Dean of Philosophy, Ateneo SantíAnselmo (Italy) Alberto GarcÌa GÛmez, LLM, PhD, UNESCO Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights (Spain/Italy) Henk ten Have, MD, PhD, Professor of Health Care Ethics, Anuhuac University (Netherlands/Mexico) Willem Lemmens, PhD, Antwerp University (Belgium) Therese Lysaught, PhD, Professor, Loyola University Chicago (USA) Joseph Tham, M.D., PhD, APRA Rome (Italy) & Holy Spirit College (Hong Kong).

The Growth of Dental Ethics as a Discipline
2025-02-25 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | Online
Please join us for this online event on February 25,2025
Speaker: David T. Ozar, Ph.D.
David T. Ozar, an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago, has made significant contribution to dental ethics through his teaching, founding of the American Society for Dental Ethics, and extensive work with dental schools and professional societies, while also authoring 153 ethics articles and three editions of “Dental Ethics at Chairside.”
His distinguished career has earned him numerous honors, including Honorary Fellowships from the American College of Dentists and the American College of Legal Medicine, as well as the American College of Dentists’ Ethics and Professionalism Award in 2018.
Learning Objectives:

Describe the main elements of the development of dental ethics as a discipline for teaching and learning since the 1980’s.
Examine whether the discipline of dental ethics is adequately addressing, in its teaching and learning, the reality that professional formation is a process of life-long self-formation.

DENTAL PROFESSIONALS CAN EARN 1ADA CERP CREDIT
University of Rochester, Eastman Institute for Oral Health is an ADA CERP Recognized Provider.
ADA CERP is a service of the American Dental Association to assist dental professionals in identifying quality providers of continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by boards of dentistry.
Concerns or complains about a CE provider may be directed to the provider or to the Commission for Continuing Education Provider Recognition at ADA.org/CERP.

How Can a Patient Be Dead While Their Heart Still Beats? Addressing Ethical Challenges in the Determination of “Brain Death”/Death by Neurological Criteria
2025-02-25 12:00 - 13:00 (America/Chicago) | Online
The determination of a person’s death is an important process involving both medical and societal considerations. Controversy and confusion regarding the determination of death by neurologic criteria persist at the bedside, in the community, and within broader policy discussions. This leads to ethical dilemmas, narrative misunderstandings, and a lack of clarity that can result in both medical and moral harms. How can clinicians ensure death by neurologic criteria is determined ethically, accurately, and consistently? How should clinicians respond to patients’ and families’ unfamiliarity with the process of determining death? Specifically, how should clinicians approach the concept of death by neurological criteria when patients and families may not be aware of, or open to the concept? This session will review prevailing legal and medical standards for determining death, and offer practical strategies for how to ethically approach conflict when death by neurological criteria is at issue.
Learning Objectives: After this webinar, attendees will be able to:

Describe the social importance of the meaning and determination of death, and the two current legal standards for the determination of death, either: 1) Circulatory or, 2) Brain Death/Death by Neurological Criteria.
Describe the procedures for the determination of death by neurological criteria.
Identify strategies to address common ethical issues that arise in the determination of death by neurological criteria.

Speaker(s)

Margy McCullough-Hicks, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at the University of Minnesota and Affiliate Faculty at the Institute for Health Informatics. She is a vascular neurologist specializing in cerebrovascular disease and stroke neuroimaging and has a strong interest in clinical and research ethics. Dr. McCullough-Hicks earned her BA in Philosophy from Columbia University and her MD from Georgetown University. She completed a Neurology residency at Yale and a Vascular Neurology fellowship at Stanford. She is a member of the UMN Department of Neurology Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee, the University of Minnesota Medical Center Ethics Committee, and the American Academy of Neurology Ethics, Law, and Humanities Committee.
Joel Wu, JD, MPH, MA, HEC-C, is a Center for Bioethics Clinical Ethics Assistant Professor and a senior lecturer in the Division of Health Policy and Management at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. He is a co-chair of the University of Minnesota Medical Center’s Ethics Committee, co-lead for the clinical ethics consultation service for MHealth Fairview system hospitals, and member of the MHealth Fairview Ethics Council. Professor Wu earned his BS in Biochemistry, Genetics and Cell Biology, and Microbiology, and his MPH in Epidemiology from the University of Minnesota, and his Masters in Bioethics and JD from Case Western Reserve University. He completed fellowships in Bioethics and Professionalism at the Mayo Clinic and in Clinical Ethics and Children’s Minnesota and Abbott Northwestern Hospital. He is a member of the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network Ethics Committee.

A REFUTATION
2025-02-21 19:00 - 2025-02-22 16:30 (America/New_York) | Hybrid, PA
The Greenwall Foundation’s 75th anniversary in 2024 gave us the opportunity to share stories of the people and events that have shaped the Foundation’s course and inspire our future. The celebration continues into early 2025 with our capstone 75th anniversary event: two Greenwall Foundation-commissioned performances of A REFUTATION, with Theater of War Productions, that will be hosted in Washington, DC, and webcast live on February 21 and 22.
A REFUTATION, directed, adapted, and facilitated by Theater of War’s Bryan Doerries, will feature dramatic readings by acclaimed actors from conflicting historical accounts of Philadelphia’s 1793 yellow fever epidemic and spark guided audience discussions on America’s current health inequities.
The cast features Chad Coleman (The Walking Dead, The Wire), Brían F. O’Byrne (Conclave, Million Dollar Baby), Michael Potts (The Wire, The Piano Lesson), and Peter Marks (former chief theater critic for The Washington Post).
“These performances are an exceptional way to mark the Foundation’s anniversary,” said Michelle Groman, JD, President & CEO. “They draw from the Foundation’s past commitment to arts funding, remain grounded in our current bioethics focus, and look toward the future by bringing bioethics to new audiences through a less traditional medium.”
The DC Public Library and Ebenezer United Methodist Church-Capitol Hill are partners and hosts of the two events.
February 21, 2025
7:00 pm – 9:30 pm EST
Ebenezer United Methodist Church
400 D Street SE
Register here
February 22, 2025
2:00 pm – 4:30 pm EST
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
901 G Street NW
Register here

Healing through Medicine and Prayer
2025-02-20 19:30 - 20:30 (America/New_York) | Hybrid, PA
The modern world faces religious, spiritual and existential quandaries, as new technologies redefine the beginnings and ends of life.
Join Dr. Robert Klitzman and Rabbi David Ingber as they share stories about the spiritual lives of patients and explores the role of chaplains — who they are, what they do and the challenges they face.
In Person & Online
Online Tickets starting at $18
In-Person Tickets starting at $18

Applying for Health Humanities Jobs Beyond Academia
2025-02-20 18:00 - 19:30 (America/New_York) | Online
Our esteemed panelists will draw on their experiences as scholars who obtained post-graduate training in the health humanities before transitioning into industry, nonprofit, and/or administrative work to provide advice and insight for job seekers.
We will reserve plenty of time for Q&A with the panelists, so please come with your questions big and small!
In addition to the Zoom link for live attendance, registrants will receive a video recording of the panel and a free copy of Journeying from Academia to Industry: A Guidebook for PhDs by Allyson Wierenga, MA.
Panelists:
Olivia Banner, PhD. Director of Strategy & Operations, Center for Research and Education on Accessible Technology & Experiences, University of Washington

Emily Dufton, PhD. Author & Public Scholar

Diane M. Korngiebel, DPhil. AI Principles Ethicist and ELSI Scholar, Responsible Innovation Google

Nicole Robinson, MFA. Poet & Narrative Medicine Coordinator, Akron Children’s Hospital

Questions: Contact Brianna C. August-Rae, Ph.D. (cusanno@etsu.edu) or Liz Bowen, Ph.D. (bowenel@upstate.edu)

Ethics Case Conference: "Is the MOLST Valid? Is the Patient Refusing? Ethics Amidst Unclear Goals of Care"
2025-02-20 12:00 - 13:00 (America/New_York) | Online
With Daniel Kim, PhD, MPH & Christen Paradissis, PhD
Dr. Kim received a PhD in Religious Ethics from the University of Chicago and an MPH in Social and Behavioral Sciences from Yale University. He was a 2021-22 fellow of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. His research examines ethical issues by attending to basic questions of self, community, and culture, specifically issues in clinical moral distress, end-of -life care, ethics education, health justice, and religion and medicine. His recent works have been published in the Hasting Center Report, American Journal of Bioethics, Journal of Religion and Health, Journal of Intensive Care Medicine, and Teaching and Learning in Medicine.
Dr. Paradissis is a clinical ethics fellow at the Alden March Bioethics Institute. She obtained a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Utah in 2024. In addition to her doctoral work, Dr. Paradissis has served as a writing panel member for the American Nurses Association’s 2024 revision of the Code of Ethics, was a nursing ethics intern at the Cleveland Clinic in 2021 and practiced a registered nurse from 2016-2019. Dr. Paradissis’ research focuses on the ethics of trust, betrayal, and blame in tripartite relationships in the health care setting, as well as discerning the boundaries of professional practice. She is interested in thinking about the role health care institutions play in setting expectations of trust between nurses and patients, about how breakdowns in trust occur when nurses, patients, and institutions blame one another, and about what practices of blame between such parties are morally permissible.
Please join us! There will be plenty of time for questions afterwards!

Learn More About Columbia's M.S. in Bioethics Program from Distinguished Faculty
2025-02-19 06:00 - 19:00 (America/New_York) | Online
Join us for this session in which distinguished Bioethics faculty will provide you with insight into the Bioethics program and answer any questions you may have about the courses they lead at Columbia University.
