How might lack of access impact maternity care options for rural women in Michigan?

The Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences is excited to announce the first event of the 2020-2021 Bioethics Public Seminar Series (formerly the Bioethics Brownbag & Webinar Series). You are invited to join us virtually – events will not take place in person. Our seminars are free to attend and open to all individuals.

Maternity Care Deserts in Rural Michigan

Andrea Wendling photo — Andrea Wendling, MD

Event Flyer
Zoom registration: bit.ly/bioethics-wendling

U.S. physician shortages affect rural healthcare access, including access to maternity care. OB deserts, which are geographical high-risk areas for care delivery, exist in the Upper Peninsula and northeast Lower Peninsula of Michigan. How might lack of access impact maternity care options for rural women in our state? Dr. Wendling will present recent work that identified and characterized access points for prenatal and delivery care in Michigan’s rural counties and explored access to Trial of Labor After Cesarean (TOLAC) services for rural Michigan women. We will discuss how lack of access may impact maternity care choices for rural women and will strategize ways to address this issue.

Join us for Dr. Wendling’s online lecture on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 from noon until 1 pm ET.

Andrea Wendling, MD, is a Professor of Family Medicine and Director of the Rural Medicine Curriculum for Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine. She has received the Rural Professional of the Year Award from the Michigan Center for Rural Health and was named the Outstanding Educator of the Year by the National Rural Health Association in 2020. Dr. Wendling is Assistant Editor for the Family Medicine journal and a founding Associate Editor of Peer-Reviewed Reports in Medical Education and Research (PRIMER). She participates on rural workforce research groups for the National Rural Health Association (NRHA) and Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and has presented and published in the areas of medical education and the rural health workforce. Dr. Wendling is a family physician in rural Northern Michigan.

Can’t make it? All webinars are recorded! Visit our archive of recorded lectures. To receive reminders before each webinar, please subscribe to our mailing list.

How do our loved ones make life-and-death medical decisions for us?

Speaking for the Dying: Life-and-Death Decisions in Intensive Care

Susan P Shapiro photo — Susan P. Shapiro, PhD

Event Flyer

Seven in ten older Americans who require medical decisions in the final days of life lack capacity to make them. For many of us, our biggest life-and-death decisions—literally—will therefore be made by someone else. But how will they decide for us? Despite their critical role in choreographing the end of another’s life, we know remarkably little. Susan Shapiro’s new book, Speaking for the Dying, fills that void. Drawing on daily observations over more than two years in two intensive care units in a diverse urban hospital, Shapiro will share how loved ones actually speak for the dying, the criteria they use in medical decisions on behalf of patients without capacity, and the limited role of advance directives in this process.

Join us for Dr. Shapiro’s lecture on Wednesday, November 13, 2019 from noon until 1 pm in person or online.

Susan P. Shapiro is a sociologist and research professor at the American Bar Foundation. She works at the intersection of law and relationships of trust in which one acts of behalf of a vulnerable other—for example, medical decision making for patients without capacity. Her publications examine the role of law at life’s end, ethics, agency theory, conflict of interest, the professions, securities fraud and regulation, and white-collar crime. In addition to scores of articles, she is the author of Speaking for the Dying: Life-and-Death Decisions in Intensive Care (U of Chicago Press), Tangled Loyalties: Conflict of Interest in Legal Practice (U of Michigan Press) and Wayward Capitalists: Target of the Securities and Exchange Commission (Yale U Press).

In person: This lecture will take place in C102 Patenge Room in East Fee Hall on MSU’s East Lansing campus. Feel free to bring your lunch! Beverages and light snacks will be provided.

Online: Here are some instructions for your first time joining the webinar, or if you have attended or viewed them before, go to the meeting!

Can’t make it? All webinars are recorded! Visit our archive of recorded lectures. To receive reminders before each webinar, please subscribe to our mailing list.

Exploring life with a spinal cord injury

Spinal Cord Injury: Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask

Mark Van Linden photo — Mark Van Linden, MSA

Event Flyer

Look at him zip around in that wheelchair. He is so independent and inspirational. But I wonder how he goes to the bathroom, if he’s really as happy as he seems, does he have sex, how does that work, is he in pain, does he work? What are the health problems he has to deal with, what are medical expenses? There are many dimensions to a happy and healthy life, and everyone would agree that life is complicated. But when multiplied by a spinal cord injury (SCI), the complexity of life can be off the charts—what we used to take for granted becomes a monumental challenge. This talk will explore life with SCI from a first-person perspective.

Join us for Mark Van Linden’s lecture on Wednesday, October 16, 2019 from noon until 1 pm in person or online.

Mark Van Linden grew up in Lansing, MI and had a very stable and nurturing childhood. Raised by his Dad, Mark attended a private high school, played basketball in college, graduated with a BS in manufacturing, and started out in his career as a manufacturing engineer in the automotive industry. His career was going very well; seemingly right on schedule he met a girl, got married, started a family, and the American Dream was well on its way to reality. Then in 2009, it was discovered that he had an aortic aneurysm, and the required surgery would replace his entire aorta from the arch to the femoral artery. During that surgery, at age 39 with two kids ages 2 and 4, he became paralyzed from the waist down. Everything he knew was now turned upside-down, and a new life was about to begin.

In person: This lecture will take place in C102 Patenge Room in East Fee Hall on MSU’s East Lansing campus. Feel free to bring your lunch! Beverages and light snacks will be provided.

Online: Here are some instructions for your first time joining the webinar, or if you have attended or viewed them before, go to the meeting!

Can’t make it? All webinars are recorded! Visit our archive of recorded lectures. To receive reminders before each webinar, please subscribe to our mailing list.

Announcing the Fall 2019 Bioethics Brownbag & Webinar Series

The Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State University is proud to announce the 2019-2020 Bioethics Brownbag & Webinar Series. The series will begin on October 16, 2019. You are invited to join us in person or watch live online from anywhere in the world! Information about the fall series is listed below. Please visit our website for more details, including the full description and speaker bio for each event.

Fall 2019 Series Flyer

Spinal Cord Injury: Everything You Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask
Wednesday, October 16, 2019

There are many dimensions to a happy and healthy life, and everyone would agree that life is complicated. But when multiplied by a spinal cord injury (SCI), the complexity of life can be off the charts—what we used to take for granted becomes a monumental challenge. This talk with explore life with SCI from a first-person perspective.

Mark Van Linden, MSA, is President of Adversity Solutions LLC and a spinal cord injury patient since 2009.

Speaking for the Dying: Life-and-Death Decisions in Intensive Care
Wednesday, November 13, 2019

Susan P. Shapiro, PhD, is a Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation.

In person: These lectures will take place from 12:00-1:00 PM in C102 (Patenge Room) East Fee Hall on MSU’s East Lansing campus. Feel free to bring your lunch! Beverages and light snacks will be provided.

Online: Here are some instructions for your first time joining the webinar, or if you have attended or viewed them before, go to the meeting!

Can’t make it? Every lecture is recorded and posted for viewing in our archive. If you’d like to receive a reminder before each lecture, please subscribe to our mailing list.

What social and ethical challenges are presented by female cosmetic genital surgery?

Female Cosmetic Genital Surgery: Social and Ethical Considerations

Event Flyer

In recent years, there has been an upsurge in plastic surgery for women who wish to alter the look and feel of their genitalia. The women who undergo these procedures claim they are empowering, but critics worry such surgeries pathologize normal genital appearance. Several surgeons are also using social media to document these surgeries, granting them greater visibility and legitimacy. This talk will discuss the latest innovations in female cosmetic genital surgery, the history behind the medical community’s involvement in defining women’s sexuality, and the ethical and social challenges these surgeries present.

Join us for Dr. Stahl’s lecture on Wednesday, March 13, 2019 from noon until 1 pm in person or online.

Dr. Devan Stahl is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Ethics in the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State University. She received her Ph.D. in Health Care Ethics from St. Louis University. Dr. Stahl teaches medical students and residents in the College of Human Medicine and performs ethics consultation services at hospitals in Lansing, Michigan. Her research interests include medicine and the visual arts, theological bioethics, and disability studies. Dr. Stahl’s recent book, Imaging and Imagining Illness: Becoming Whole in a Broken Body, examines the power of medical images and their impact on patients and the wider culture.

In person: This lecture will take place in C102 Patenge Room in East Fee Hall on MSU’s East Lansing campus. Feel free to bring your lunch! Beverages and light snacks will be provided.

Online: Here are some instructions for your first time joining the webinar, or if you have attended or viewed them before, go to the meeting!

Can’t make it? All webinars are recorded! Visit our archive of recorded lectures. To receive reminders before each webinar, please subscribe to our mailing list.

Who wouldn’t want to live as long as possible?

Should We Be Reaching for Immortality?

Event Flyer

Whether by chipping away at the diseases of aging one-by-one, or by altering the fundamental biology of aging, medical research seems to be reaching for one over-arching goal: indefinitely extending the human lifespan. Living a longer, healthy life seems like an unqualified good. So long as life is good, who wouldn’t want to live as long as possible? The question turns out to be more complicated than it sounds. Dr. Tomlinson will be explaining some doubts, from both the individual and societal points of view.

Join us for Dr. Tomlinson’s lecture on Wednesday, February 13, 2019 from noon until 1 pm in person or online.

Tom Tomlinson was the Director of the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences from 2000-Fall 2018, has written and spoken on a wide variety of bioethical issues since 1981, and has provided clinical ethics consultation services for a number of hospitals in Michigan. He received his PhD in Philosophy from MSU in 1980, and is happy to have mentored students who have embarked on successful careers in bioethics. This talk marks the beginning of a possible book project tentatively titled The Lure of Immortality.

In person: This lecture will take place in C102 Patenge Room in East Fee Hall on MSU’s East Lansing campus. Feel free to bring your lunch! Beverages and light snacks will be provided.

Online: Here are some instructions for your first time joining the webinar, or if you have attended or viewed them before, go to the meeting!

Can’t make it? All webinars are recorded! Visit our archive of recorded lectures. To receive reminders before each webinar, please subscribe to our mailing list.

Announcing the Spring 2019 Bioethics Brownbag & Webinar Series

It’s almost time for the 2018-2019 Bioethics Brownbag & Webinar Series to resume! This spring we’ll hear from Center for Ethics faculty on the topics of aging and extending the human lifespan, as well as the social and ethical considerations of female cosmetic genital surgery. Please join us in person, or join the webinar livestream from any location. Visit the series webpage for more information.

Spring 2019 Series Flyer

Should We Be Reaching for Immortality?
Wednesday, February 13, 2019

So long as life is good, who wouldn’t want to live as long as possible? The question turns out to be more complicated than it sounds.

Tom Tomlinson, PhD, is a Professor in the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences and the Department of Philosophy at Michigan State University.

Female Cosmetic Genital Surgery: Social and Ethical Considerations
Wednesday, March 13, 2019

This talk will discuss the latest innovations in female cosmetic genital surgery, the history behind the medical community’s involvement in defining women’s sexuality, and the ethical and social challenges these surgeries present.

Devan Stahl, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences and the Department of Pediatrics and Human Development at Michigan State University.

Online: Here are some instructions for your first time joining the webinar, or if you have attended or viewed them before, go to the meeting!

Can’t make it? Every lecture is recorded and posted for viewing in our archive. If you’d like to receive a reminder before each lecture, please subscribe to our mailing list.

How can we protect patient rights and improve patient safety?

Ending Medical Self-Regulation: Does Less Physician Control Improve Patient Safety and Protect Patient Rights?

Event Flyer

Medicine has long been one of the most self-regulating of all professions. In the 1970s, the new field of bioethics was designed to challenge this prevailing system. As Senator Ted Kennedy explained at the founding of Georgetown’s Kennedy Institute of Ethics, “Human life is too precious and the decisions regarding it too important to leave to any one group of specialists.” Still, even fifty years later, medicine remains largely self-regulating. And patients have suffered. In this presentation, Professor Pope will discuss recent initiatives to constrain the scope of physician discretion and how these initiatives improve patient safety and protect patient rights. He will place particular emphasis on the growing transition from traditional informed consent to shared decision-making with patient decision aids.

Join us for Dr. Pope’s lecture on Wednesday, October 10, 2018 from noon until 1 pm in person or online.

Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, is Director of the Health Law Institute and Professor of Law and at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He is also: (1) Adjunct Professor with the Australian Centre for Health Law Research at Queensland University of Technology; (2) Adjunct Associate Professor with the Alden March Bioethics Institute at Albany Medical College; and (3) Visiting Professor of Medical Jurisprudence at St. Georges University. Professor Pope has over 140 publications in: leading medical journals, law reviews, bar journals, nursing journals, bioethics journals, and book chapters. He coauthors the definitive treatise The Right to Die: The Law of End-of-Life Decisionmaking. And he runs the Medical Futility Blog (with over three million page views).

In person: This lecture will take place in E4 Fee Hall on MSU’s East Lansing campus. Feel free to bring your lunch! Beverages and light snacks will be provided.

Online: Here are some instructions for your first time joining the webinar, or if you have attended or viewed them before, go to the meeting!

Can’t make it? All webinars are recorded! Visit our archive of recorded lectures. To receive reminders before each webinar, please subscribe to our mailing list.

Why do psychiatrists choose not to disclose borderline personality disorder diagnoses with patients?

Therapeutic Privilege in Psychiatry? The Case of Borderline Personality Disorder

Event Flyer

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a serious mental illness that effects 2-3% of the population, is highly stigmatized, and is often comorbid with other mental disorders. Although no pharmaceutical interventions exist, long-term psychotherapy has been shown to alleviate the symptoms of BPD. Nonetheless, behavioral health care professionals often hesitate to discuss BPD with their patients even when it is clear they have this disorder. Why do psychiatrists, in particular, fall silent? In this talk, Dr. Sisti will sketch the history of BPD and describe ethical arguments for and against of therapeutic nondisclosure. Dr. Sisti will summarize empirical data regarding psychiatrist nondisclosure of BPD, including recent research conducted by his team at Penn. Dr. Sisti will argue that diagnostic nondisclosure, while well-intentioned, can have long-term negative consequences for patients, caregivers, and the health system more generally. As a form of therapeutic privilege, nondisclosure of BPD is ethically inappropriate.

Join us for Dr. Sisti’s lecture on Wednesday, September 19, 2018 from noon until 1 pm in person or online.

Dominic Sisti, PhD is director of the Scattergood Program for the Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health Care and assistant professor in the Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy at the University of Pennsylvania. He holds secondary appointments in the Department of Psychiatry, where he directs the ethics curriculum in the residency program, and in the Department of Philosophy. Dominic’s research examines the ethics of mental health care services and policies, including long-term psychiatric care for individuals with serious mental illness and ethical challenges in correctional mental health care. He also studies how mental disorders are defined, categorized, and diagnosed with a focus on personality disorders. Dr. Sisti’s writings have appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as JAMA, JAMA Psychiatry, Psychiatric Services, and the Journal of Medical Ethics. His work has been featured in popular media outlets such as the New York Times, NPR, Slate, and The Atlantic. Dr. Sisti received his PhD in Philosophy at Michigan State University, working under the supervision of Professor Tom Tomlinson. A native of Philadelphia, Dominic received his Master’s degree in bioethics from the University of Pennsylvania and his bachelor’s degree from Villanova University.

In person: This lecture will take place in C102 East Fee Hall on MSU’s East Lansing campus. Feel free to bring your lunch! Beverages and light snacks will be provided.

Online: Here are some instructions for your first time joining the webinar, or if you have attended or viewed them before, go to the meeting!

Can’t make it? All webinars are recorded! Visit our archive of recorded lectures. To receive reminders before each webinar, please subscribe to our mailing list.

Announcing the Fall 2018 Bioethics Brownbag & Webinar Series

The Center for Ethics and Humanities in the Life Sciences at Michigan State University is proud to announce the 2018-2019 Bioethics Brownbag & Webinar Series, which features a variety of bioethics topics. The series will begin on September 19, 2018. You are invited to join us in person or watch live online from anywhere in the world! Information about the fall series is listed below. Please visit our website for more details, including the full description and speaker bio for each event.

Fall 2018 Series Flyer

Therapeutic Privilege in Psychiatry? The Case of Borderline Personality Disorder
Why do behavioral health care professionals often hesitate to discuss BPD with their patients even when it is clear they have this disorder?
Wednesday, September 19, 2018; C102 Patenge Room, East Fee Hall
Dominic A. Sisti, PhD, is Director, The Scattergood Program for Applied Ethics of Behavioral Health Care; Assistant Professor, Department of Medical Ethics & Health Policy; Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Ending Medical Self-Regulation: Does Less Physician Control Improve Patient Safety and Protect Patient Rights?
Wednesday, October 10, 2018; E4 Fee Hall
Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, is Director of the Health Law Institute at Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

In person: These lectures will take place from 12:00-1:00 PM (Eastern Time) in East Fee Hall on MSU’s East Lansing campus. Feel free to bring your lunch! Beverages and light snacks will be provided.

Online: Here are some instructions for your first time joining the webinar, or if you have attended or viewed them before, go to the meeting!

Can’t make it? Every lecture is recorded and posted for viewing in our archive. If you’d like to receive a reminder before each lecture, please subscribe to our mailing list.

Maternity Care Deserts in Rural Michigan

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: