The Center for Bioethics advances compassionate and fair clinical care that respects the dignity of patients and the professionals who care for them. We foster this aspect of our mission through academic scholarship; educational opportunities including bedside teaching, credit-bearing courses, and our Unpacking Bedside Bioethics webinar series; service on national and regional task forces; and a robust clinical ethics service for M Health Fairview system hospitals.

Clinical Ethics

We provide ethics consultation support for all of the hospitals in the M Health Fairview system. We help educate teams across system hospitals using a number of strategies, including bedside teaching, educational forums on issues raised by site ethics committees, and webinars on common challenges across the system. We also conduct background research and provide input on system policies and on organizational ethics issues, working with the system’s Clinical Ethics Council.

Debra DeBruin, PhD, oversees the clinical ethics service. Joel Wu, JD, MPH, MA, HEC-C, and Jennifer Needle, MD, MPH, HEC-C, serve as the system-wide clinical ethics consultation co-leads; they also co-chair the ethics committee at the University of Minnesota Medical Center. Jaime Konerman-Sease, PhD, HEC-C, serves as a clinical ethicist.

News

Faculty Presenting at the 26th Annual Conference of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH)

Motivate Clinicians to Use Patient Decision Aids by Showing How They Reduce Medical Liability Risk

Ethicists Are Addressing Ableism in Medical Education, Clinical Practice

Top 10 Legal Developments in SDM: Law and Policy Update on Implementing SDM into Clinical Practice

Are they really dead? Ethical Controversies related to Normothermic Regional Perfusion Donation after Cardiac Death

Ethicists Are Finding Ways to Meet Needs of Rural Clinicians

View All Clinical Ethics News

Publications

Konerman-Sease, J. (2024). Afterlife and Life-After. Literature and Medicine, 42(1), 21-25. https://doi.org/10.1353/lm.2024.a935829

Konerman-Sease, J. (2024). People on Floors: Creating Relics Out of Medical Waste. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 67(4), 556-565. https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2024.a942078

Konerman-Sease, J. (2024). On the Ground: Terrestrial Theopoetics and Planetary Politics, by O’neil Van Horn. Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology, 28(2), 222-225. https://doi.org/10.1163/15685357-02802003

Konerman-Sease, J. (2023). Responding to people in pain with Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park. Christian Bioethics: Non-Ecumenical Studies in Medical Morality, 29(3), 207–220. https://doi.org/10.1093/cb/cbad018

Konerman-Sease, J. (2022). What Bioethics Grad Students Want in Catholic Health Internships. In The Third Annual Catholic Healthcare Innovation in Ethics Forum, 18(1). Available at https://www.chausa.org/docs/default-source/hceusa/what-bioethics-grad-students-want-in-catholic-health-internships.pdf?sfvrsn=d578c7f2_0

Thompkins, J. D., Needle, J., Baker, J. N., Briggs, L., Cheng, Y. I., Wang, J., Friebert, S., & Lyon, M. E. (2021). Pediatric Advance Care Planning and Families' Positive Caregiving Appraisals: An RCT. Pediatrics, 147(6), e2020029330. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-029330

Overbey, D. M., Stephens, E. H., Parent, B., Ameduri, R. K., Catarino, P. A., Needle, J., Kucera, J. A., Kaldas, F. M., Biniwale, R., & Turek, J. W. (2024). Review of Current Normothermic Regional Perfusion Practice in Pediatric Cardiac Donation. The Annals of thoracic surgery, S0003-4975(24)01091-9. Advance online publication.

Madrigal, V. N., Feltman, D. M., Leuthner, S. R., Kirsch, R., Hamilton, R., Dokken, D., Needle, J., Boss, R., Lelkes, E., Carter, B., Macias, E., & Bhombal, S. (2022). Bioethics for Neonatal Cardiac Care. Pediatrics, 150(Suppl 2), e2022056415N. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2022-056415N

Needle, J. S., Friebert, S., Thompkins, J. D., Grossoehme, D. H., Baker, J. N., Jiang, J., Wang, J., & Lyon, M. E. (2022). Effect of the Family-Centered Advance Care Planning for Teens with Cancer Intervention on Sustainability of Congruence About End-of-Life Treatment Preferences: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 5(7), e2220696. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.20696

Baker, J. N., Friebert, S., Needle, J., Jiang, J., Wang, J., & Lyon, M. E. (2022). An Intervention in Congruence for End-of-Life Treatment Preference: A Randomized Trial. Pediatrics, 149(5), e2021054796. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2021-054796

Lyon, M. E., Cheng, Y. I., Needle, J., Friebert, S., Baker, J. N., Jiang, J., & Wang, J for the Adolescent Palliative Care Consortium. (2021). The intersectionality of gender and poverty on symptom suffering among adolescents with cancer. Pediatric blood & cancer, 68(8), e29144. https://doi.org/10.1002/pbc.29144

Needle, J. S., Liaschenko, J., Peden-McAlpine, C., & Boss, R. (2021). Stopping the Momentum of Clinical Cascades in the PICU: Intentional Responses to the Limits of Medicine. Journal of palliative care, 36(1), 12–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/0825859719851487

Needle, J. S., Peden-McAlpine, C., Liaschenko, J., Koschmann, K., Sanders, N., Smith, A., Schellinger, S. E., & Lyon, M. E. (2020). "Can you tell me why you made that choice?": A qualitative study of the influences on treatment decisions in advance care planning among adolescents and young adults undergoing bone marrow transplant. Palliative medicine, 34(3), 281–290. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216319883977

Schreiner, K., Grossoehme, D. H., Friebert, S., Baker, J. N., Needle, J., & Lyon, M. E. (2020). "Living life as if I never had cancer": A study of the meaning of living well in adolescents and young adults who have experienced cancer. Pediatric blood & cancer, 67(10), e28599. https://doi.org/10.1002/pbc.28599

Grossoehme, D. H., Friebert, S., Baker, J. N., Tweddle, M., Needle, J., Chrastek, J., Thompkins, J., Wang, J., Cheng, Y. I., & Lyon, M. E. (2020). Association of Religious and Spiritual Factors With Patient-Reported Outcomes of Anxiety, Depressive Symptoms, Fatigue, and Pain Interference Among Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer. JAMA network open, 3(6), e206696. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.6696

Friebert, S., Grossoehme, D. H., Baker, J. N., Needle, J., Thompkins, J. D., Cheng, Y. I., Wang, J., & Lyon, M. E. (2020). Congruence Gaps Between Adolescents With Cancer and Their Families Regarding Values, Goals, and Beliefs About End-of-Life Care. JAMA Network Open, 3(5), e205424. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.5424

Needle, J. S., Peden-McAlpine, C., & Liaschenko, J. (2019). Physicians' Perspectives on Adolescent and Young Adult Advance Care Planning The Fallacy of Informed Decision Making. The Journal of clinical ethics, 30(2), 131–142. https://doi.org/10.1086/jce2019302131

Kamrath, H. J., Osterholm, E., Stover-Haney, R., George, T., O'Connor-Von, S., & Needle, J. (2019). Lasting Legacy: Maternal Perspectives of Perinatal Palliative Care. Journal of palliative medicine, 22(3), 310–315. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2018.0303

Needle J. S., Brunquell D., Lyon M., & Heith C*. (2018). Mature minors, mature decisions: Advance care planning for adolescent patients with life-limiting illness. Journal of Pediatric Ethics, 1(3).

Sveen, W.*, Sury, M., & Needle, J. (2017). If Truth Be Told: Paternal Nondisclosure in Neonatal Herpes Simplex Virus Infection. Journal of Pediatric Ethics 1(1).

Needle, J. S., Bjorklund, A., & Gupta, S. (2017). Considerations in Caring for Adult Patients in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. Journal of pediatric intensive care, 6(2), 77–82. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0036-1584680

Needle, J., & Smith, A. R. (2016). The Impact of Advance Directives on End-of-Life Care for Adolescents and Young Adults Undergoing Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant. Journal of palliative medicine, 19(3), 300–305. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2015.0327

Needle J. (2014). Ethical challenges with the advancement of hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Journal of pediatric intensive care, 3(3), 195–200. https://doi.org/10.3233/PIC-14097

Needle, J. S., Mularski, R. A., Nguyen, T., & Fromme, E. K. (2012). Influence of personal preferences for life-sustaining treatment on medical decision making among pediatric intensivists. Critical care medicine, 40(8), 2464–2469. https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0b013e318255d85b

Nakagawa, T., Rigby, M., Bratton, S., Shemie, S., Ajizian, S., Berkowitz, I., Bowens, C., Cosio, C., Curley, M., Dhanani, S., Dobyns, E., Easterling, L., Fortenberry, J., Helfaer, M., Kolovos, N., Koogler, T., Lebovitz, D., Michelson, K., Morrison, W., Naim, M., Needle, J., ... Weise, K. (2011). A call for full public disclosure for donation after circulatory determination of death in children. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine, 12(3), 375-377. https://doi.org/10.1097/PCC.0b013e31820ac30c

Needle J. S. (2010). Home extubation by a pediatric critical care team: providing a compassionate death outside the pediatric intensive care unit. Pediatric critical care medicine: A journal of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies, 11(3), 401–403. https://doi.org/10.1097/PCC.0b013e3181c0143f

Needle, J. S., O'Riordan, M., & Smith, P. G. (2009). Parental anxiety and medical comprehension within 24 hrs of a child's admission to the pediatric intensive care unit*. Pediatric critical care medicine : a journal of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies, 10(6), 668–674. https://doi.org/10.1097/PCC.0b013e3181a706c9

Needle, J., & Anderson, M. R. (2006). Medical emergency teams: Are improved outcomes really like day and night?. Critical care medicine, 34(6), 1840–1841. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.CCM.0000219369.59563.9A

Clinical Ethics Recordings