The European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Healthcare

The XXth European Conference on Philosophy of Medicine and Healthcare, organized by the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Healthcare (ESPMH) and The Finnish Society for Philosophy of Medicine, took place in August 2006 (08 / 23-26). Congress venue: House of Sciences, Helsinki, Finland.

Download Conference Final Programme (ESPMH website):
==> click here.

Among numerous presentations made by physicians, psychiatrists and philosophers, one in particular was dealing with the ambiguities of death and brain death definitions:
"Medicine and the definition of death: between science and humanities", by Renzo Pegoraro, Fondazione Lanza, Padova, Italy.

"Renzo Pegoraro, born in Padua, Italy in 1959, graduated as doctor of medicine at the University of Padua in 1985. He studied philosophy and theology in Padua and in Rome, graduating with the licence in moral theology in 1990. He graduated with diploma in Corso di perfezionamento in bioetica at the Catholic University in Rome and was ordained priest of the Diocese of Padua.

In 1993 he became professor of Bioethics at the Faculty of Theology in Padua, and General Secretary of the Fondazione Lanza (a centre of advanced studies in ethics, bioethics and environmental ethics). In 1994 he was appointed president of the ethics committee of the Regional Centre of Oncology and since 1998 he has been president of the research ethics committee of the Medical Centre of Padua. He serves as an ethicist in several institutions and is a member of the executive committee of the European Society for Philosophy of Medicine and Health Care. He has published articles in journals and books on different issues in biomedical ethics, particularly on religion and bioethics, ethics consultation, organ transplantation and elderly care."

Source:
http://med.kuleuven.be/education/Bioethics/Pegoraro.html

Renzo Pegoraro is also co-author to the article: "European physicians' experience with ethical difficulties in clinical practice" (Samia A Hurst, Arnaud Perrier, Renzo Pegoraro, Stella Reiter-Theil, Reidun Forde, Anne-Marie Slowther, Elizabeth Garrett-Mayer, Marion Danis).

France was representated at this Conference, mainly by two contributions:
- Armelle de Bouvet, MD: Docteur en biologie et théologienne, Directrice du Centre d’Ethique Médicale de l’Université Catholique de Lille : "Methodological reflections on the coherence of teaching the humanities and ethics in a medical faculty - a French experiment"
- Marc Andronikof, MD: chef de service des urgences de l'hôpital Antoine Béclère de Clamart: "Looking into medical scores".

Sources:
http://www.espmh.cm-uj.krakow.pl/
http://med.kuleuven.be/education/Bioethics/Pegoraro.html

D. Alan Shewmon MD, Neuroethics

D. Alan Shewmon MD, UCLA* Neurology, UCLA Medical Center, California, is a brain specialist. He has been working as a corresponding member at the "Pontifical Academy for Life" (Rome) since 1996, and as a member of the "Olive View-UCLA Medical Center Ethics Committee" (California) since 2002. His numerous books and articles (white papers) on neurology (especially about the criteria of death definition, brain death,...) are listed on his Personal Homepage.

==> D. Alan Shewmon MD's Personal Homepage: click here.

Source:
http://www.brainharmony.org/

*UCLA: University of Los Angeles, California