Karla FC Holloway to speak on ethics at NIH forum
The National institute of Nursing Research is a sponsor for the end-of-life and palliative care summit in Bethesda, Md.
If you had a terminal disease and doctors suggested you participate in research that could either cure you or make you much sicker, would you sign the forms? How much pain are you willing to endure for a cure? Would you sign as a healthy person, or once you became gravely ill?
The ethics of who asks these questions, when and how they are asked, will be the topic of an upcoming talk by Karla F.C. Holloway, James B. Duke Professor of English and a professor of law at Duke. Her recent book, "Private Bodies, Public Texts: Race, Gender, and a Cultural Bioethics," explores these issues in depth.
Holloway will speak on a panel on "The Ethics of Science at the End-of-Life: A Town Hall Discussion," part of a national summit on end-of-life care, hosted by the National Institute of Nursing Research Wednesday, Aug. 10, in Bethesda, Md.
The National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR) is a component of the National Institutes of Health, the nation's primary medical research agency, which investigates the causes, treatments and cures for all diseases.
Registration is required for the free, public summit, "The Science of Compassion: Future Directions in End-of-Life and Palliative Care." To register, click www.ninr.nih.gov/scienceofcompassion.
Summitt organizers said the event will bring together scientists, health care providers, educators and researchers to examine the current status of research and best practices and how to encourage further research.
"The event serves as a significant milestone to not only reflect on past accomplishments, but also to envision and plan the next generation of end-of-life and palliative care," said NINR director Patricia A. Grady.
Joining Holloway on the panel are: Nancy Berlinger, a deputy director and research scholar at The Hastings Center; Joseph Fins, a medical ethics professor and chief of the division of medical ethics at Weill Cornell Medical College; and Marie Hilliard, the director of bioethics and public policy at the National Catholic Bioethics Center.