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 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. To that end, the MSMS 27th Annual Conference on Bioethics will engage you with questions about ethical dilemmas surrounding capacity and consciousness. This conference is being held on Friday, November 10, 2023, from 8:45 am – 4:15 pm, at the Sheraton Ann Arbor and is also available virtually.
Keynote Speaker, Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD, HEC-C, will provide a presentation titled Brain Death and Medical Futility: Practical Solutions for Conflict Resolution, from 9:00 – 10:00 am. Professor Pope is a foremost expert on medical law and clinical ethics. He focuses on patient rights, healthcare decision making, and end-of-life options. A Hasting Center Fellow and former Fulbright Scholar and Brocher Foundation Researcher, Pope is a law professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota. While he serves in a range of consulting capacities, he has been particularly influential through his extensive, high-impact scholarship. Ranked among the Top 20 most-cited health law scholars in the United States, Professor Pope has over 250 publications in leading medical journals, bioethics journals, and law reviews. He coauthors the definitive, biannually updated reference book The Right to Die: The Law of End-of-Life Decisionmaking, coauthors Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking: A Compassionate Widely Available Option for Hastening Death and runs the Medical Futility Blog (with over five million page views).
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
• The Persisting Problem of Precedent Autonomy Among Persons in a Minimally Conscious State
• Student Rapid Fire Paper Session
For more information and to register – click here.
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.
