At the Epicenter: Cruzan and PSDA 20 Years Later

November 12 and 13, 2010 

Westin Crown Center
1 Pershing Road
Kansas City, MO

On December 6, 1989, Bill Colby walked to the podium of the Supreme Court of the United States to plead the case of his client, Nancy Cruzan. The next year, our country had a new constitutional right embodied within the Patient Self Determination Act of 1990.

That was 20 years ago. The court decision and the law will be noted during a conference entitled “At the Epicenter: Cruzan and PSDA 20 Years Later,” November 12 and 13 in Kansas City, MO.

It’s an opportunity to convene leading voices in law, medicine, theology and ethics to reflect on these events and explore a controversial and difficult topic rooted in these two landmark events -- artificial nutrition and hydration.

For more information about the Cruzan case, the conference and to register, click on the links below.

Links: 

• Overview
• Program
• Audio Podcast, A Conversation with Bill Colby, William Colby, JD, General Counsel – Truman Medical Center

Podcast: The Bioethics Channel

Stem Cells: The Ethics Debate Begins Anew 

Glenn McGee, PhD

August 26, 2010
16 minutes 20 seconds

A US judge blocks rules on embryonic stem cell research, and the ethical merry-go-round begins anew on this controversial issue. Glenn McGee lends some perspective in this edition of the Bioethics Channel.

Dr. McGee is the John B. Francis Chair in Bioethics and editor in chief of the American Journal of Bioethics.

Blog: Practical Bioethics

Caplan: America's Sick Deserve Better

Bioethics.net

Many have called it legislating from the bench. Others have called it sending us back to the stone age.

But as Arthur Caplan puts it in this week's MSNBC column Judge Royce Lamberth's ruling preventing the use of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research hasn't just hobbled stem cell research--it has killed the hopes for recovery of tens of thousands if not millions of Americans.

Other links on this story:

• NIH cannot fund embryonic stem cell research, judge rules, Washington Post, August 24
• Stem Cell Biology and Its Complications, New York Times, August 24
• Stanford stem cell expert weighs in on district court ruling, August 23