National bioethics conference held at U.

Expert discusses ethics of health care The nation's 150 most influential bioethicists, professors and medical attorneys met for the second annual conference of the American Association of Bioethics at the Sheraton University City Hotel this weekend. Arthur Caplan, AAB president and director of the University's Center for Bioethics, opened the convention by describing the birth of the field of bioethics. As the threat of scandal involving questionable ethical decisions began to increase, doctors looked to non-physicians for advice and opinions, he said. The additional onslaught of new technology and uncertainty about the goals of medicine also contributed to the creation of the new field, he added. Caplan said there was a time when the University had no coursework in the area of health care and ethics. He added that it currently has one of the leading centers in the world for bioethics study. "It's put us at the center of trying to shape the politics and public policy direction of a lot of ethically controversial areas of health care," he said. Caplan explained that the conference demonstrated that many people around the country are thinking carefully about the kinds of things happening at the University's Medical School. He added that the University is setting the agenda for addressing future issues in bioethics, such as the manipulation of genetic information and the use of virtual reality for therapy. Bioethics generally looks at issues ranging from rationing health care to physician-assisted suicide, reproductive technologies, test tube babies and genetic engineering, Caplan explained. He added that the University Health System is driving forward in the frontiers of key issues in medical research. "There are some real medical advances being done here, like?treating infertility and manipulating embryos and reproductive materials to see how they work and function and develop," Caplan said. Glenn McGee, a new faculty member at the Center for Bioethics, also viewed the conference as an important step in recognizing and establishing the University's dominance in the area of bioethics. He said that for many people just entering the field of bioethics, the Center for Bioethics is ideal, adding that it is rapidly becoming one of the nation's largest centers. McGee also said that bioethics is an area that is often overlooked as not being an essential part of science. And he stressed that resources must be allocated before problems arise, rather than after they become issues, he said. After the conference's presidential address, participants divided into small panels to discuss issues such as genetic enhancement and posthumous reproduction.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.