Categories
Abortion Bioethics Chronic pain Fetal pain Philosophy

Pain as Fact and Heuristic

If you are like me, you aren’t sure what “heuristic” means. According to multiple sources, it is an experience-based technique for problem solving. In her new article,Pain as Fact and Heuristic: How Pain Neuroimaging Illuminates Moral Dimensions of Law, Professor Amanda C. Pustilnik argues against a simple understanding of physical pain as a justification for […]

Categories
Bioethics Euthanasia Health Care Reform Philosophy

Autonomy, Restraint and the Common Good

The views of Joseph Raz, Ronald Dworkin, John Finnis, and Robert George on the value and limits of personal autonomy are examined in a new article by Adam McLeod, The Mystery of Life in the Laboratory of Democracy: Personal Autonomy in State Law. “The article then examines several different areas of state law where one […]

Categories
Abortion Constitutionality Court cases Late-term abortion Politics

How the Court Made Political Compromise Impossible

Randy Beck has just posted a new piece entitled Fueling Controversy on SSRN. He responds to a recent Yale Law Journal article by Linda Greenhouse and Reva Siegel, Before (and After) Roe v. Wade: New Questions about Backlash, in which they question the received wisdom that the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade generated […]

Categories
Abortion Conferences Conscience protection Contraception International Medical schools Nursing schools Politics Professional education United Nations Women's health

Matercare International’s 8th Worldwide Conference Soon

Registration is still open for Matercare International’s Eighth Worldwide Conference. The conference theme is the “Dignity of Mothers and Obstetricians-Who on Earth Cares.” It will be held August 31-September 4, 2011 at the Instituto Maria Bambina, Rome. The conference schedule can be found here, and registration forms here. Matercare International is an international group of […]

Categories
Assisted Reproduction Bioethics Call for Papers Death and dying

2012 International Bioethics Conference

Abstracts and symposia proposals are invited for the 11th conference of the International Association of Bioethics: THINKING AHEAD, Bioethics and the Future, and the Future of Bioethics, which will be held from June 26th till June 29th, 2012 in Rotterdam, Netherlands. The IAB conferences are an interdisciplinary forum for the exchange of moral views, practices, […]

Categories
Abortion Free Speech Politics

Quick addendum to clinic escort story

I recently blogged about the Ninth Circuit opinion requiring police to enforce the “Mother May I” or “speech free zones” against clinic escorts as well as sidewalk counselors here. Just discovered another story about Rev. Hoye’s prolife efforts in The Catholic Voice of Oakland Diocese. It seems he was behind the placement of several billboards […]

Categories
Fetal anomolies and disabilities Fetal pain Health exception

Hospitals ban elective inductions before 39 weeks

Oregon papers are reporting that all-Portland area hospitals are prohibiting elective inductions and c-sections prior to 39 weeks gestation. “[R]esearch has shown that there is significant brain development going on right through 38 weeks. Babies born before 39 weeks of pregnancy are two to three times more likely to be admitted to intensive care as […]

Categories
Abortion Constitutionality Court cases Free Speech Sidewalk Counseling

Speech by Sidewalk Counselors and Clinic “Escorts” Must be Treated the Same

Walter Hoye, a California pastor and sidewalk counselor, filed a federal constitutional challenge to the City of Oakland’s “Mother May I” ordinance restricting speech outside abortion clinics after having been arrested twice for approaching women seeking to enter abortion clinics. The case is Hoye v. Oakland. Evidence in the case established the Pastor Hoye attempted […]

Categories
Conferences University Faculty for Life

William May to be plenary speaker at 2012 UFL Conference

I am delighted to report that Dr. William E. May has agreed to be a plenary speaker at the 2012 University Faculty for Life Conference to be held June 1-2, 2012 at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. Mark you calendars to attend our annual meeting now. Dr. May is emeritus Michael J. McGivney Professor […]

Categories
Abortion Central America Court cases International Religious views South America United Nations

Symposium on Gender Justice in the Americas: A Transnational Dialogue on Violence, Sexuality, Reproduction, and Human Rights

The Miami Law Review has published a symposium issue containing papers and talks given at the 2011 conference involving advocates and scholars from 20 countries in North and South America to explore Gender Justice in the Americas: A Transnational Dialogue on Violence, Sexuality, Reproduction, and Human Rights. The introduction to the symposium issue is now […]