March 17, 2008

Expert in bioethics to speak at law, medical schools

by Tim Crosby

Haddad

CARBONDALE, Ill. — A longtime health educator will give the 2008 John & Marsha Ryan Bioethicist in Residence lecture at the Southern Illinois University School of Law Center for Health Law and Policy.

Amy Haddad, director of the Center for Health Policy and Ethics at Creighton University Medical Center, will speak at 5 p.m. April 2 in the courtroom at the Hiram H. Lesar Law Building on the campus of Southern Illinois University Carbondale. On April 3, Haddad also will speak to a class taught by Eugene Basanta, professor in the SIU School of Law, titled "Regulation of Health Care Professionals." On April 4, Haddad will travel to Springfield where she will give a presentation for students in the SIU School of Medicine.

Marshall B. Kapp, professor in the SIU School of Law, said Haddad will bring a unique perspective to students and others during her visit to the University.

"In law, we deal with the legal aspects of health care and those contain a lot of bioethical implications, but we still tend to look at it legalistically," said Kapp, the law school's Garwin Distinguished Professor of Law and Medicine and co-director of the Center for Health Law and Policy. "She brings a true bioethical perspective and that will help our students understand how the legal aspects and bioethics interact."

Kapp said Haddad is a leader in the field by virtue of her research, her many publications and by winning the Pellegrino Medal in 2007. Named for Edmund Pellegrino, regarded by many as the father of American bioethics, the award is presented by the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities for lifetime achievement.

"It's sort of the Nobel Prize for bioethics," Kapp said.

Haddad's lecture at the law school is titled "Residual Problems, Lingering Questions: The Nuance of Ethics in Hospice." The program will address end-of-life ethical issues for patients who have entered hospice and how that contrasts with the acute care setting.

Haddad is director of the Center for Health Policy and Ethics and holder of the Dr. C.C. and Mabel L. Criss Endowed Chair in Health Sciences at Creighton University Medical Center. She earned her doctorate in adult and continuing education in 1988 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She earned her master's of science in nursing in 1979 at University of Nebraska Medical Center and a bachelor's of science in nursing in 1975 from Creighton University.

She has worked in health sciences education since 1979, teaching in the nursing program at the College of St. Mary's and teaching ethics in pharmacy, medicine and related health sciences at Creighton since 1984.

She has published more than 15 book chapters and 50 journal articles. She also has written several books, including her most recent, "Health Professional and Patient Interaction," along with Dr. Ruth Purtilo. She also wrote "Case Studies in Pharmacy Ethics" with Dr. Robert Veatch.

Haddad has given presentations at numerous national and international conferences. In 2001, the Carnegie Center for the Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning selected her as national Carnegie Scholar. In 2003, she won the Robert K. Chalmers Distinguished Pharmacy Educator Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.

During her trip to Carbondale, Haddad also will give a presentation April 3 to members of the Southern Illinois Healthcare ethics committee titled, "Artificial Nutrition and Hydration: Recent Issues in End-of-Life Care."

Founded in 2006, The John & Marsha Bioethicist in Residence supports an annual residence and lecture by a law or medicine ethics scholar for the SIU School of Law and the SIU School of Medicine. The selected presenter visits classes at both schools and organizes interdisciplinary educational activities for students, residents and faculty. The presenter also interacts with students and offers a public lecture on their scholarship as it relates to law and medicine.