Dying in a Democracy: Ethics, Economics, Politics and Policy

As the title of the symposium suggests, there are many facets to consider when struggling with ethical decision making in medical bioethics. The symposium has been structured such that participants will be exposed to many ethical issues that patients, their families and their medical caregivers face in our present health care system. How are life and death decisions made? What are the criteria? What about the economics of these decisions? How does the political climate affect decision making? How will changes in the health care system affect the way we either live or die in a democracy?

Dates:

          March 11-13, 2013

Keynote speakers: 

Dr. Robert Veatch, Ph.D., Georgetown University

Dr. Art Caplan, Ph.D., Chair, Department of Medical Ethics, Langone Medical Center

Kelley Benham, Enterprise Editor at the Tampa Bay Times

Dr. Gary Wright, D.O., Ethicist and Surgeon at St. Vincent's Hospital

Dr. Ben Rich, Ph.D., J.D., University of California, Davis

Roundtable Discussions:

Implementing the Affordable Care Act at the state level: Who allocates the resources for life?

Ethical considerations concerning premature births

Making our final healthcare wishes known: the POLST document

Women’s health issues and the end of life

GLBT concerns at the end of life

The economics and the allocation of resources of dying in America

Religious considerations and the ethics of resource allocation at the end of life

Is anyone entitled to health insurance

Presentations:

Measuring grief (research project)

The DePauw University Bioethics Team

Mock ethics committee meetings

The end of life presented in art form