Events

Moderator: Mark Hughes, MD, MA

Panelists: Jeffrey Natterman, Esq.; Wendy Sanders; Mollie Selmanoff, LCSW, CCM; Simone Thomson, MSW

Please join us at the June Ethics for Lunch (EFL) for an interactive session in which we will review topics from the past year and provide an open forum for discussion of topics to consider for the next academic year. We are interested in hearing from the hospital community about the ethical issues that are faced by patients, families, communities, and members of the healthcare team.

The EFL sessions from the past year were:

1. Periviability—The Changing Landscape of Premature Birth
2. Ethical and Legal Considerations in Responding to Requests for Hastened Death: A Discussion on Medical Aid in Dying (MAID)
3. When Faith and Facts Collide: Navigating Hope and Denial at the End of Life
4. Inpatient and Incarcerated: Ethical Challenges in Caring for the Carceral Population
5. Cancer Exceptionalism in Pain Medicine
6. Decision Making for Incapacitated Patients with and without Surrogates
7. Seeing the Other: Valuing Our Humanity in the Age of AI
8. Decisions Before the Crisis: Mental Health Advance Directives

Many of the sessions over the past year addressed decision-making in challenging situations—pregnancy at risk for premature delivery, terminal illness, being in legal custody, chronic pain, loss of decision-making capacity, and acute mental illness.  Some of the situations require involvement of family or other legally authorized representatives.

Objectives:

1. Discuss steps in helping patients or families make difficult decisions
2. Discuss how to help patients cope with serious illness or challenging psychosocial situations
3. Learn about ethical issues of interest in the hospital community