Past Events Archive
The views expressed by webinar speakers are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of individual Center for Bioethics faculty. The Center for Bioethics does not take positions on specific issues, and the hosting or posting online of a webinar does not imply endorsement of any views expressed by the speakers.
2025
Whose Job Is It, Anyway? The Ethics and Management of Hospital Efforts on Social Determinants of Health
- Kelsey N. Berry, PhD
Hospitals and other health care organizations face myriad opportunities to advance their ethical commitments to health equity, including through activities that fall outside the bounds of their traditional role of caring for the sick. In…
Where Do We Go From Here? Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Pediatric Health Disparities in 2025 and Beyond
- Monique Jindal, MD, MPH
- Nathan T. Chomilo, MD, FAAP, FACP
This webinar will explore how structural policies shape pediatric health disparities and what is possible in 2025 to advance health equity. Reflecting on parallels between our current climate and discourse with what Dr. Martin Luther King…
How Can a Patient Be Dead While Their Heart Still Beats? Addressing Ethical Challenges in the Determination of “Brain Death”/Death by Neurological Criteria
- Margy McCullough-Hicks, MD, University of Minnesota.
- Benjamin Miller, MD, University of Minnesota.
- Joel Wu, JD, MPH, MA, HEC-C, University of Minnesota.
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…
Environmental Injustice: The Clinical and Ethical Implications of Our Unhealthy Environments
- Keisha Ray, PhD
Our health is largely determined by our social environments and that includes our physical environments. Our health is directly impacted by the location of oil and gas facilities, the amount of plastics and carcinogens in our drinking…
2024
Do You Believe in Miracles? Productively Engaging Patients’ Hopes for a Miracle
- Devan Stahl, PhD, HEC-C, Baylor University
- Trevor M. Bibler, PhD, HEC-C, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital
How should clinicians respond to a patient’s or family’s hope for a “miracle”? What if the family’s hope for a miracle means continuing on a recovery-focused path even when clinicians believe recovery is not possible and further life-…
Ethics At the Intersection: Discussing End of Life Choices With American Indian and Alaska Native Patients
- Mary J. Owen, MD, University of Minnesota Medical School
American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN) have cultural practices for all phases of life that have been in existence for thousands of years. Despite US government policies aimed at eradicating AIAN culture, the Indigenous Peoples of this…
Reimagining Rural Health Equity: Understanding Disparities And Advancing Rural Policy, Practice, And Research
- Anne Sosin, MPH, Dartmouth College
- Elizabeth Carpenter-Song, PhD, Dartmouth College
Decades of underinvestment in rural communities, health care, and public health institutions left rural America uniquely vulnerable to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, the pandemic prompted creative actions to meet immediate health…
Ending Unequal Treatment: A Systems Approach
- Georges C. Benjamin, MD, MACP, FACEP (E), FNAPA, American Public Health Association
- Monica E. Peek, MD, MPH, MS, FACP, University of Chicago, The Pritzker School of Medicine
Racial and ethnic inequities in health and health care impact individual well-being, contribute to millions of premature deaths, and cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Addressing these inequities is vital to…
A Patient's Last Chapter: Ethical Considerations for VSED, Euthanasia, and MAID
- Joel Wu, JD, MPH, MA, HEC-C, University of Minnesota
Currently, there is significant controversy regarding whether and how patients may work with clinicians to influence the time and manner of their death at the end of life. This session will describe treatment options that might allow…
Withdrawing and Withholding: Distinctions and Controversies in End of Life Care
- Jaime Konerman-Sease, PhD, HEC-C, University of Minnesota
- Justin Penny, DO, MA, HEC-C, University of Minnesota
Surveys report that 60% of physicians reported that it was more ethically problematic and psychologically difficult to withdraw life-sustaining interventions than to withhold them (Chung et al). Is there a meaningful ethical difference…