There is much in contemporary health care that is ripe for transformation, including bioethics.

In this 2011 Flanigan Lecture in Kansas City, MO, Dr. Richard Payne of Duke University submits that standard bioethics codified in traditional ethical principles needs to be challenged as too limiting for analyzing and responding to the issues of inadequate health care.

Regina Benjamin, MD
US Surgeon General

April 26, 2011

The Center for Practical Bioethics celebrated its annual bioethics symposium and dinner on April 26, 2011 in Kansas City, Missouri. Regina M. Benjamin, MD, MBA, Surgeon General and Vice Admiral of the United States Public Health Service, was the keynote speaker.

Congressman Emanual Cleaver, II (MO-5^th District) introduced Dr. Benjamin.

In 1986, the Kansas City Regional Hospital Ethics Committee Consortium was formed to study issues that transcended any one hospital. From these discussions and study, the group developed policy guidelines that addressed ethically complext problems that all hospitals were dealing with.

On January 15, 2011, the consortium met to celebrate its 25th anniversary. A panel composed of individuals who launched the consortium and participated in its early work described how the consortium began and its work today.

Panelists included:

Myra Christopher, President and CEO of the Center for Practical Bioethics
Hans Uffelmann, co-founder of the Center
Rosemary Flanigan
Judge David Waxse

Kathleen M. Foley, MD

Flanigan Lecture – August 3, 2010
Kansas City, MO

Death panel discussions in 2009 high jacked real issues around palliative care. Workforce capacity of palliative care limits access, as do some hospice benefits on concurrent active therapies. And prescription drug abuse impacts end of life pain management.

Those are some of the political challenges around palliative care in the US, according to Kathleen Foley, MD, attending neurologist in the Pain and Palliative Care Service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. Dr. Foley spoke to these issues during the Flanigan Lecture August 3, 2010 in Kansas City, MO.

In 2009 the Center for Practical Bioethics established a chair in palliative care named after Dr. Foley. 

Links:

• Audio Podcast, The Politics of Palliative Care
• Video, The Politics of Palliative Care
• PowerPoint: The Politics of Palliative Care, Kathleen Foley, MD
• Powerpoint: Palliative Care: A Standard for Cancer Care

Are you well-born? 

Eugenics was more - much more - than Nazis killing Jews during World
War II.

In this May 26, 2010 lecture, Glenn McGee, PhD, the John B. France Chair in Bioethics at the Center for Practical Bioethics, explains eugenics, past and present, both in Germany and the United States and is in conjunction with Deadly Medicine: Creating the Master Race- a traveling exhibition on loan from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Perry Fine, MD
Professor of Anesthesiology
School of Medicine, University of Utah

"The Missing Element in Healthcare Reform: Medicare Cost- Curve at the End of Life - OR - The Economics of Healthcare for Older Americans: From Virtue to Voodoo and Back Again."

Dr. Fine presented this lecture at the annual bioethics symposium sponsored by the Center for Practical Bioethics on April 14, 2010

Links:

• Symposium: Perry Fine, MD, 1 hour 
• Symposium: Perry Fine, MD PowerPoint

In November, 2009 the United States Preventive Services Task Force released a report questioning the merits of routine mammography screening.

Recommendations from the report have sparked criticism among women's advocacy groups and medical professionals alike. But is such criticism deserved?

A panel of experts helped illuminate the facts and values behind all sides of this heated issue during a public forum on March 24, 2010. Forum panelists included:

·        J. Tony Madeira, MD, mammography radiologist, Saint Luke's Health System

·        Summer Johnson, PhD, executive editor, American Journal of Bioethics 

·        Karin McCrary, RN, BSN, Senior Director of Operations, Saint Luke's Cancer Institute

·        Ian M. Rosbrugh, M.D. , F.A.C.O.G.,  Heartland Women's Health Care

·        Kari Miller, grants and education coordinator, Susan G. Komen Foundation,

·        Kansas City Stephen Salanski, MD, Program Director, Research Family Medicine Residency

Terry Rosell, PhD, the Rosemary Flanigan Chair at the Center for Practical Bioethics, moderated the program.

Glenn McGee, PhD
Francis Chair in Bioethics

February 24, 2010
58 minutes 20 seconds

Is it ethical for individuals, or for society generally, to take advantage of technologies that will change our entire notion of what it means to age? Is it okay to want to live forever?

Those questions were addressed by Glenn McGee, PhD, the Francis Chair at the Center for Practical Bioethics, during a lecture February 24 in Kansas City.

 

Myra Christopher
President/CEO
Center for Practical Bioethics

People who are seriously ill still suffer needlessly. In this December 9, 2009 lecture Myra Christopher of the Center for Practical Bioethics explores the root causes of this problem and why we as a society are so resistant to change.

November 10, 2009

55 minutes 1 second

The physician patient relationship is changing, as is the concept of medical professionalism. Is it time to redefine what we mean by medical professionalism? And how will that affect your relationship with your doctor?

Gary Pettett, MD, a neonatologist and a Fellow at the Center for Practical Bioethics, explains in this lecture November 10, 2009.