Brain injuries and other kinds of cognitive impairments raise fundamental questions about the goals of medicine, the ethical care of vulnerable patients, and the meaning of life itself. Moreover, between brain injury, illness, and aging, neurological impairment affects a significant number of patients across the life course. Indeed, patients who lack the capacity for decision making are sometimes rendered total bystanders to their own care, even when they have preferences about their treatment. The MSMS 27th Annual Conference on Bioethics will engage with questions about ethical dilemmas surrounding consciousness and capacity.
Keynote Speaker, Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, HEC-C, will start the day with a presentation titled Brain Death and Medical Futility: Practical Strategies for Conflict Resolution. Doctor Pope is a professor of Law at Hamline University Law School. He joined Hamline as the Director of the Health Law Institute in January 2012 after serving as Associate Professor of law at Widener University of Law. There, his research focused on medical futility, internal dispute resolution, tort law, public health law, and normative jurisprudence. He authors a blog on medical futility, reporting and discussing legislative, judicial, regulatory, medical, and other developments concerning end-of-life medical treatment.
Other presentations include:
- Navigating the Ethical Dilemma of Medical Retirement for Adolescent Athletes with Repetitive TBI: Protecting the Right to an Open Future
- Conscientious Objection and Refusing Interventions to Patients with Profound Neurological Injury
- Cessation of Function: When Clinicians and Families Disagree about Death by Neurological Injury
- The Persisting Problem of Precedent Autonomy Among Persons in a Minimally Conscious State
This conference is being offered both in-person and virtually. For more information and to register – click here or copy and paste this address to your browser: https://connect.msms.org/Education-Events/Calendar-of-Events/Meeting-Home-Page?meetingid=%7B6DE92F81-6C25-EE11-812E-000D3A0DE1A1%7D
Registration Fees:
Members – $50
Non-members – $100
Students and residents – Free
Statement of Accreditation
The Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
AMA Credit Designation Statement
The MSMS designates this live activity for a maximum of 6 AMA PRA Category Credit(s)™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
