By Dennis O'Connor

STEUBENVILLE, Ohio - The beginning and end of human life were the focus of Franciscan University of Steubenville's first-ever bioethics conference, marking the rollout of a new emphasis on Catholic bioethics education. The gathering, held Oct. 25-27 at the southeast Ohio university, featured programs by some of the nation's leading Catholic bioethicists, including three members of the prestigious President's Council on Bioethics.

CNS photo/M. W. Lensch, Children's Hospital Boston

Embryonic stem cells, such as that shown above courtesy of the Children's Hospital in Boston, were a focus of discussion at the Franciscan University of Steubenville's first-ever bioethics conference held at the end of October.

Sponsored by Franciscan University's Institute of Bioethics, the conference, "Human Life: Its Beginning and End," was geared toward health-care professionals who on a daily basis grapple with complex medical issues, particularly those engaged in human fertility and end-of-life challenges, according to Dr. Patrick Lee, director of the institute.

Dr. Robert P. George, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University and a frequent collaborator on life issues with Lee, gave the first annual Paul and Barbara Henkels lecture during the conference. George, a member of the President's Council on Bioethics, spoke about embryonic human beings, defending his position - and the church's directive - that human embryos are indeed persons and that embryo-destructive research is morally wrong.

Also giving major presentations at the conference were two other members of the President's Council: Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, from the Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University; and Dr. William B. Hurlbut from Stanford University Medical Center's Neuroscience Institute.

Throughout the three-day conference, panel members examined basic scientific and ethical arguments associated with beginning- and end-of-life concerns, zeroing-in on embryonic stem-cell research and the plethora of new argumentation that has split society on euthanasia, abortion and the administration of life-saving or prolonging therapies. Panel discussions were held on concrete clinical cases coving a wide spectrum of issues that are not only important today but have become some of the most widely argued political debates, Lee said.

"Aside from war, which is an extremely complicated issue on its own, the most controversial issues in mainstream society today are those having to do with the beginning of life, the end of life - and health-care associated with it - reproductive ethics and sexual ethics," Lee said. "These are the big issues, and we wanted to tackle them head-on."

Lee said that the creation of the Bioethics Institute at the university have been under way for a couple years. Over that period, funding has been raised to create the new bioethics chair, now held by Lee; details for the kickoff event in October have been in the works for about a year, he added.

"John Paul II talked about the culture of life versus the culture of death," Lee said. "In that we see this struggle going on to uphold what we consider to be traditional, common sense morality. We're getting beat up by the media and the elites in secular universities, cultures that do not recognize the intrinsic value of the human person. It is ironic that our culture seems to be dualistic in some ways, where arguments put forward to justify abortion, euthanasia, sex outside marriage and same-sex unions rely on an implicit dualism, treating the body outside itself."

Thus, Lee noted, the need was identified at Franciscan University for a program that offers training in logic, the natural sciences, clinical experiences and basic ethics. Ultimately, he said, a certificate in bioethics will be available to students at the university, and down the road he said he envisions an academic concentration that would meld all these fields into one discipline of study.

"So, one of our goals with the program is to train students and other professionals so they can articulate (the Catholic position) on these bioethics issues," Lee said. He said that one of his short-term goals is to have 25-30 students doing a concentration in bioethics, who are able to go out and make presentations at other universities or forums across the country to present the Catholic perspective on these issues.

"I don't want to give the impression that we have all the answers," Lee said. "Because we don't. There are lots of individual questions and situations that are extremely difficult to sort out. That is the intrinsic value of this kind of conference, where we can exchange ideas with professionals who are dealing with these kinds of life-and-death concerns every day."

Lecture to address science and religion

ARCHDIOCESE - The Gustav A. and Mamie W. Efroymson Lecture Series will feature Dr. Noah Efron, Chair of the Graduate Program in History and Philosophy of Science at Bar Ilan University, Israel. Efron will deliver a public lecture, titled "Christians, Jews and Human Beings: Science and Religion in the United States" on Nov. 11 at 5 p.m. Admission is free to the lecture, which will be held at the Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral on Fourth Street in downtown Cincinnati.

Efron is a teacher at Bar Ilan University in Israel and is a historian of science and religion whose work has explored intersections of Judaism and science from the early modern to contemporary times. Efron is the author of two recently published books, Judaism and Science: A Historical Introduction, and Real Jews: Secular, Ultraorthodox & the Struggle for Jewish Identity in Israel.

Science is today often viewed as a battleground for religion. This lecture will describe an alternative view, much in vogue in past generations, in which science was seen as a tool to legitimate religion in a pluralist and democratic society.