Healthcare Workers' Conscience Rights Focus of Conference

by Karina Brady, Student Public Relations Writer – May 17, 2019

Princeton University political philosopher Dr. Robert George will keynote the opening session June 6.

Cedarville University’s Center for Bioethics and Center for Political Studies will hold the Clinical Ethics and Conscience Rights Conference June 6-8. Cost for the event, which will take place in the Stevens Student Center, is $50.

Princeton University political philosopher Dr. Robert George will keynote the opening session. He is the McCormick professor of jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton and has served as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School. George has served as chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and as a presidential appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

— Dennis Sullivan

The conference will address the rights of health care workers who object to medications or procedures due to religious or moral convictions. There will be three keynote presentations and nine breakout sessions led by physicians, philosophers, nurses, chaplains, ethicists and lawyers.

“Conscience rights should be respected and protected by law, but patients have a right to legal treatments and may not be abandoned by the health care system,” said Dr. Dennis Sullivan, Cedarville University professor of pharmacy practice and director of the Center for Bio-ethics. “This debate centers on certain highly controversial matters: abortion, sterilization, contraception, assisted suicide, gender-transitioning drugs and many others.”

The opening session with George will be June 6 at 7 p.m. This session is free to the public but requires advance registration available at the door.

The Clinical Ethics and Conscience Rights Conference is sponsored by the Cedarville University Center for Bioethics, Center for Political Studies, the Northern Plains Ethics Institute at North Dakota State University, and the International Academy of Medical Ethics.

More details and online registration are available at www.cedarville.edu/clinicalethics.

Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 4,193 undergraduate, graduate and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, including its doctor of pharmacy, master’s in global public health, M.S.N. family nurse practitioner, healthcare mba, pharmd/mba dual degree, and M.S.N. nurse educator programs, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings and leading student satisfaction ratings. For more information about the University, visit www.cedarville.edu.