Ramanell Center.

January 17, 2025: Romanell Bioethics Workshop

Join us Friday and Saturday, January 17 and 18, 2025  for the Romanell Bioethics Workshop. The two-day event features presentations and discussions by Romanell Center fellows. 

ROMANELL BIOETHICS WORKSHOP
Location: Park Hall 141, UB North Campus

PROGRAM: FRIDAY, January 17, 2025

9:30-10:45 David Hershenov (Romanell Fellow/UB) “To Fission is to Die”

10:45-11:00 Break 

11:00-12:15 Finn Wilson (Romanell Fellow/UB Grad Student) Topic: The Ontology of Death

12:15-2:30 Lunch 

2:30-3:45 Sean Kindya (UB Grad Student) Topic: Brain identity theories, modified commissurotomy and fission 

3:45-4:00 Break

4:00-6:00 Steve Kershnar – Keynoter (Romanell Fellow/SUNY Fredonia) “The Properties of God and the Ideal Physician”


PROGRAM: SATURDAY, January 18, 2025

9:30-10:45 Phil Woodward (Niagara University) Topic: Psychological Unity and Substance Dualism

10:45-11:00 Break

11:00-12:15 Brandon Long (UB Grad) “Precautionary Principle and Metabolically Alive Brains”

12:15-2:30 Lunch

2:30-3:45 Kurt Blankschaen (Romanell Fellow/Daemon University) Topic: Natural Law and the One Flesh Unity Hypothesis

3:45-4:00 Break

4:00-6:00 Phil Reed - Keynoter (Romanell Fellow/Canisius College) Topic: Physician Assisted Suicide 

Interviews

  • Valerie Williams interviewed by RC Fellow Kurt Blankschaen
    7/1/24

    Dr. Valerie Williams (Emmanuel College) sits down with Romanell Fellow Kurt Blankschaen to talk about her recent work with the ethics and problems of using body mass index (BMI) as a deciding factor to offer in vitro fertilization (IVF). Dr. Williams also discusses some of her recent research for teaching on private companies offering prenatal screening that is unregulated by the FDA, patient self-advocacy, and general attitudes towards what it means to be a physically and morally fit parent. The audio interview is here.

David Hershenov featured on PhilStuff video interview

Romanell Center Director, David Hershenov, is featured in a video interview hosted by PhilStuff. Hershenov discusses the relationship between personal identity and the ethics of abortion. He addresses questions and topics such as: What is personal identity? Why personal identity? Brain death; Twinning and fusion; Conjoined twins; Brain transplant; Some interesting puzzles; Bias in the bioethics community. See the YouTube video, here.

Publications

  • Phillip Reed.
    Phillip Reed: Professional medicine should not endorse assisted suicide
    7/1/24

    The Buffalo News Opinion Column (Another Voice/Healthcare) published an essay co-authored by Phillip Reed, titled "Professional medicine should not endorse assisted suicide." The article is about how the Medical Society of the State of New York's (MSSNY) endorseed assisted suicide legislation for the first time. While some state medical societies have adopted positions of neutrality with respect to assisted suicide, the MSSNY is the first to support such legislation. Read the article here.

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  • TMB Journal publishes paper by Robert Kelly
    9/7/22
    Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics (TMB)  Journal has published the paper, "Towards a Dispositionalist (and Unifying) Account of Addiction", by RCCE Fellow Robert Kelly. Paper Abstract: Addiction theorists have often utilized the metaphor of the blind men and the elephant to illustrate the complex nature of addiction and the varied methodological approaches to studying it. A common purported upshot is skeptical in nature: due to these complexities, it is not possible to offer a unifying account of addiction. I think that this is a mistake. The elephant is real – there is a there there. Here, I defend a dispositionalist account of addiction as the systematic disposition to fail to control one’s desires to engage in certain types of behaviors. I explain this position, defend the inclusion of desires and impaired control, and flesh out the notion of systematicity central to my account. I then try to show how my dispositionalist framework can unify the disparate, seemingly incompatible accounts of addiction (and their respective methodological approaches). I close with a brief plan to extend and implement my account.

Spotlight

Philosopht.
American Journal of Bioethics 23 publishes article by Romanell Fellow

James Cordeiro, “On the Moral Permissibility of Elective Ectogestation” American Journal of Bioethics 23 (5):116-118 (2023)

The advent of artificial womb technology (AWT) raises serious moral questions, many capably framed and reviewed in De Bie et. al.’s (2022) focal article on the ethics of AWT and fetonates. Cordeiro’s commentary  addresses the moral permissibility of “elective ectogestation” (EE) which  receives sparse treatment in this otherwise admirable review. 
Continue reading.

People

  • Barry Smith
    3/18/21
    As an undergraduate, Barry Smith studied mathematics and philosophy at the University of Oxford, before earning his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester in 1976. Currently, he holds the position of Julian Park Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Computer Science, and Neurology at the University of Buffalo in New York.
  • Catherine Nolan
    6/14/21
    Catherine Nolan is currently working on issues in the intersection of metaphysics and bioethics. She is particularly interested in applying the concepts and arguments of the Christian metaphysical tradition to contemporary problems.  Her dissertation, entitled “The Ethics and Metaphysics of Vital Organ Donation,” was a defense of the claim that death is a metaphysical event, unable to be determined purely scientifically. This makes the diagnosis of death much more uncertain. If we attempt to justify vital organ donation by claiming that the donor is dead, we are often being misleading or dishonest. Instead, she suggests that we should focus on not killing the donor, treating those who may be dead as though they are still alive. 
  • David Hershenov, Director
    2/17/23
    David Hershenov, PhD, is a professor of philosophy at the University at Buffalo and director of the Romanell Center. His earlier research was focused upon issues at the intersection of personal identity and bioethics. His recent research interests are in the philosophy of medicine.
  • Harvey Berman
    4/2/23
    Harvey Berman is a pharmacologist responsible for teaching Doctors of Pharmacy (PharmD) and of Medicine (MD) in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. His teaching and research interests are in adverse drug interactions, pharmacogenomics, ethics of drug clinical trials, pain palliation and geriatric pharmacology.
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Showcase

Jack Freer, Artist

Since retiring from clinical medicine, Jack Freer has been spending more time working on pastel painting. This image depicts a scene in Florence during a 1629-31 outbreak of bubonic plague.

The Center for Clinical Ethics and Humanities in Health Care, established at the University at Buffalo in 1994, is now the Romanell Center for Clinical Ethics and the Philosophy of Medicine. The name change honors the 2003 testimentary gift bestowed by Edna Romanell, while reflecting a focus on bioethics in today's complex health care concerns. As a multi-disciplinary center with a long tradition of coordinating academic activities, the Center is poised to expand collaborative research and experience-based learning at UB to better serve the communities of Western New York, Southern Ontario, and borders beyond our own.

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