Health Care Ethics Seminars

The Poynter Center invites six to eight speakers during the academic year to address ethical concerns of community health care providers. Discussion participants include faculty members, students, local physicians and nurses, and center staff.

Seminars Spring 2008

Thursday, January 17
Ginny Gremillion, retired ethicist from Memorial Hermann Hospital, Houston, spoke on the topic, "If Only the Doctor Had Said. . . ."

Building on her years of experience dealing with difficult family and medical situations, Ginny poke about communication among physicians, family, and patient, and discussed the Texas law on medical futility.

Thursday, February 28
Professor Helen Gremillion, Department of Gender Studies, spoke on "Talk Therapy as Cultural Practice: A 'Narrative' Approach to Culture, Power, and Change."

"Narrative therapy," developed in the 1980s by Australian Michael White in collaboration with New Zealander David Epston, is an approach to talk therapy that explores the sociopolitical contexts of all clients' lives and relationships. Narrative work grew out of a critique of supposed cultural and interpersonal "neutrality" or "objectivity" within mainstream therapeutic practice. This talk presented narrative work as an alternative to standard therapies for anorexia nervosa in particular (the latter is the subject of Gremillion's book, Feeding Anorexia: Gender and Power at a Treatment Center).

Thursday, March 20
Dr. Larry Cripe, M.D., Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Indiana University School of Medicine, spoke on "In the Shadow of Hope: Truth-telling in Oncology."

Truth telling in oncology is essential if the person with cancer is to have the opportunity to receive care consistent with his or her values. However, the tragic dimensions of cancer, especially when life is likely to end, challenge our ability to communicate with compassion and honesty. The conflict between compassion and truth telling becomes most apparent in the frequently expressed desire to maintain hope or to avoid destroying hope. This talk will explore through narratives the evolution of the concept of hope and the understanding of the ethics of disclosure of information, and will suggest a model of conversations that may foster hopefulness in the setting of a terminal illness.

Thursday, April 17
Paul Helft, Director of the Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics at Clarian Health Partners, spoke April 17, 2008. His topic was “How can a clinical ethics center engage practical problems for healthcare professionals and patients?”

Dr. Helft reviewed the history, development, programs, and work of the Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics at Clarian Health in Indianapolis. Issues included:

• how ethics service, education, and research can affect the working lives of healthcare professionals and the patients they care for
• models for teaching ethics to interdisciplinary professionals
• how modern healthcare and its complexity might benefit from ethical voices.

Dr. Helft is Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the Indiana University School of Medicine in addition to being director of the Center. See Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics for further information about the Center.

Seminars Fall 2008

September 25 Jennifer Girod, J.D., Ph.D., R.N., spoke on "The Ethics of Xenotransplantation Clinical Trials." Dr. Girod is a core faculty member with the Indiana University Center for Bioethics and an associate with Taft Stettinius & Hollister, LLP. Girod spoke about some of the issues that arise from using non-human tissue in trials.

October 23 Richard Gunderman, M.D., Ph.D., spoke on "Freedom and Generosity." Dr. Gunderman is Professor of Radiology, Pediatrics, Medical Education, Philosophy, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy at IUPUI, where he also serves as Vice Chair of Radiology at the IU School of Medicine.	Richard Gunderman listens to a question from the audience.

November 20 Greg Sachs, M.D., spoke on "Pediatrics and Geriatrics: Ethics Across the Life Course." Dr. Sachs is chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine. He is a scientist with the IU Center for Aging Research at Regenstrief Institute and Wishard Hospital.

December 11 Alexia Torke, M.D., Ph.D., spoke on "Towards a New Ethical Model for Surrogate Decision- Making." Dr. Torke is Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine. She is also affiliated with the IU Center for Aging Research, Regenstrief Institute and the Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics.

See also the Matthew Vandivier Sims Memorial Lecture.