For three days in mid-July, conference attendees from a diversity of professions were captivated by plenary speakers, who charted the present course of bioethics and the various opportunities and obstacles that lay ahead. Our 14th Annual Conference was one of our highest rated of all times. Acclaimed plenary speakers challenged attendees on pressing questions of our common humanity in healthcare and science. The range of activities that participants enjoyed was broad, ranging from an evening prescreening of the award-winning film bella—facilitated by lead actor Eduardo Verástegui and Vice President of Metanoia Films Corby Pons—to a Friday night luau jointly sponsored to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Trinity Graduate School and followed by the hilarious antics of the impromptu comedy troupe ComedySportz. In the words of one participant, “There is something very human about sharing times of food and laughter.”
Other efforts to share in and enjoy our common humanity were prevalent in activities such as our first ever celebration of the nexus of the arts and bioethics entitled “The Art of Humanity.” Those who participated in this display were treated to artwork that included sculptures, photography, contemporary graphic designs, and printings of textile art. Each piece in its own way celebrated some unique aspect of our shared humanity, be it from the beginning, middle, or end of life.
Participants in the conference sessions were treated to the high level of clinical, philosophical, theological, and legal expertise that has come to be expected from the world -class speakers invited to CBHD events. Highlights included enlightening plenaries of the history of bioethical developments and law from Nigel M. de S. Cameron, PhD, and O. Carter Snead, JD, as well as thought-provoking lectures on the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne by Christina Bieber Lake and posthuman trends in our culture by Brent Waters. We invite you to visit our website www.cbhd.org and watch CBHD Director C. Ben Mitchell in his closing remarks offering highlights from the conference activities and presentations, as well as key action points for the future of bioethics.
Much excitement was generated around the various networking and working-group opportunities that allow for specialists to connect with others of like interests in the areas of neuroethics, biotech ethics, clinical ethics, ethics education, healthcare organizations, end of life issues, stem cell research and cloning, alternative medicine, and genetics. If you are interested in connecting with any of these ongoing discussions, please contact us at the Center. A significant goal of the Center is to provide opportunities for professional and topic-specific networking and to offer guidance that motivates collaborative projects. These groups are just one of the ways we achieve this objective.
Over the course of late August through early October the Center has been running select parallel paper presentations as part of our weekly podcasts. These audios are archived and available through our website. For a listing of these presentations, please visit our podcast site at www.cbhd.org/ podcast to hear these and other audios that we update on nearly a weekly basis. In the month of October alone, we received nearly 12,000 hits on our podcasts and online audio.
Conferencing is one of the many exciting activities we are involved in here at the Center, but we especially enjoy the opportunity to meet and talk with so many of you who utilize our resources and serve in such vital roles in your practices, hospitals, organizations, offices, classrooms, and congregations. Inside this issue of Dignitas, we are pleased to announce some of our other activities that we think you might find engaging.
