ASBH Conference Experience

By Shaylona Kirk

The American Society for Bioethics and Humanities’ 2009 annual meeting was held in Washington D.C. this year, and it dealt with the theme of translating bioethics and humanities between disciplines. Many of the panels, paper presentations, and workshops highlighted the need for different disciplines to learn to communicate with each other in an effective manner in order to enhance clinical care and health policy.

As a student in the new Applied Ethics and the Professions M.A. program, with a focus on biomedical and health ethics, I was excited to be able to attend several sessions concerning the role and methods of clinical ethics consultants. Hearing the diverse viewpoints of leaders in the field of bioethics was a valuable experience that allowed me to gain a broader perspective on some of the issues that ethicists are dealing with today. I learned about different ways to approach and analyze these issues and heard various suggestions for solutions to some of the problems faced by ethicists.

The opportunity to participate in discussions about real life ethical issues with people from a variety of backgrounds and positions in bioethics was a very useful and much appreciated addition to the classroom experience.