Center for Practical Bioethics

10/13/2026

The Ethics of Maternal Mental Healthcare: When Asking for Help Feels Dangerous

The September Ethics Dispatch

Postpartum mothers often fear that admitting frightening thoughts will cost them their children. Why maternal mental healthcare must make honesty safe. Includes new case study on Hospital Denies Parents’ “Right to Try” Request: Chloe’s Doctor Doesn’t have Medical Privileges.

https://www.practicalbioethics.org/blog/the-ethics-of-maternal-mental-healthcare-when-asking-for-help-feels-dangerous/

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Postpartum mothers often fear that admitting frightening thoughts will cost them their children. Why maternal mental healthcare must make honesty safe. September 2026 Ethics Dispatch. The Center for Practical Bioethics.

10/08/2026

🩺 Healthcare in an Era of Mass Deportation: Values, Ethics, and Narratives
32nd Flanigan Lecture

Thursday, October 29 at 7:00 pm CT
Free Lecture & Open to All
Attend in person OR via livestream

As mass deportation reshapes the landscape of American healthcare, doctors, nurses, and institutions face an urgent question: what do we owe the communities we serve when policy and professional duty collide?

Dr. Mark Kuczewski, PhD will explore how the healing professions’ core commitment to human dignity is being tested — and what’s at stake for patients, providers, and the values that define medicine itself.

Register: https://www.practicalbioethics.org/events/2026-flanigan-lecture/

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Join us on October 29, 2026 for the 32nd Annual Flanigan Lecture, Healthcare in an Era of Mass Deportation: Values, Ethics, and Narratives presented by the Center for Practical Bioethics. With Mark Kuczewski, PhD, we will explore how the healing professions' core commitment to human dignity is being...

10/07/2026

Your 2026 Impact Report is Here
See what your generosity made possible.
Thank you! from the Center Staff

https://www.practicalbioethics.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/10/Impact-Report-2026-FINAL.pdf

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10/06/2026

Separating the MMR Vaccine into Three Doses:
💉 💉 💉 Not in the Best Interest of Children

The Clinical Ethics Bulletin for October

PEDIATRIC/END OF LIFE ETHICS
By Nanette Elster, JD, MPH, and Kayhan Parsi, JD, PhD, HEC-C
5 min read time

The current administration has paid little attention to bioethical issues such as AI, medical aid in dying, or reproductive rights. An exception is vaccine policy as evidenced by the President’s Executive Order 14420. While invoking bioethics principles — personal autonomy and informed consent — the EO flies in the face of those long-established principles.

Separating the MMR vaccine into three doses, as EO 14420 urges, misreads autonomy and informed consent and puts children at risk. Bioethicists explain.

Read blog: https://www.practicalbioethics.org/blog/separating-the-mmr-vaccine-into-three-doses-not-in-the-best-interest-of-children/

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09/29/2026

LAST CHANCE TO REGISTER. AIRS THURSDAY.

🎥 🎥 Register for Screening Bioethics Episode 3 🎥 🎥

Episode 3 Shifting Identities: Popular Depictions of Breast Cancer and Breast Cancer Risk

Thursday, October 1 at 6 pm CT

How does popular culture reflect how women interpret their experience of breast cancer or breast cancer risk?

In this third episode of the webinar series, Screening Bioethics, hosts Nanette Elster, JD, MPH and Kayhan Parsi, JD, PhD, HEC-C joined by special guests Joanna Rudnick, MA and Cara Texler, MD, will examine and discuss relevant ethical issues about breast cancer and breast cancer risk as depicted in both fictional and documentary film and television.

Register: https://www.practicalbioethics.org/events/screening-bioethics-e3/

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Screening Bioethics is a webinar series exploring bioethics topics in popular media with hosts Kayhan Parsi, JD, PhD, and Nanette Elster, JD, MPH. In the third episode they will examine and discuss relevant ethical issues about breast cancer and breast cancer risk as depicted in both fictional and d...

09/15/2026

LAST CHANCE!
PLEASE JOIN US for Breakfast of Champions 🏆 🏆 🏆

Thursday, September 17, 2026
7:30 am to 9:30 am
Sporting Park, Kansas City, KS

HONORING ETHICS CHAMPION OF THE YEAR
Namir Khandker, MD
Neurosciences Critical Care
Ochsner Medical Center – New Orleans

Come as our Guest, Individual Tickets -- No Charge

Learn more and registration: https://www.practicalbioethics.org/events/2026-breakfast-of-champions/

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The Breakfast of Champions, the Center's annual fundraiser, is Thursday, September 17, 2026 from 7:30-9:30 am at Sporting Park, home of the Sporting KC soccer team in Kansas City. The Center for Practical Bioethics

09/10/2026

🎥 🎥 Screening Bioethics Webinar Episode 3 🎥 🎥

Shifting Identities: Popular Depictions of Breast Cancer & Breast Cancer Risk
Thursday, October 1 at 6:00 PM CST
Free Event

Breast cancer narratives often invoke terms like survivorship and previvorship. How does popular culture reflect how women interpret their experience of breast cancer or breast cancer risk?

In this third episode of the webinar series, Screening Bioethics, hosts Nanette Elster, JD, MPH, and Kayhan Parsi, JD, PhD, HEC-C joined by special guests Joanna Rudnick, MA and Cara Texler, MD will examine and discuss relevant ethical issues about breast cancer and breast cancer risk as depicted in both fictional and documentary film and television.

This 45-minute exploration will be followed by a 15-minute Q & A.

Register to receive webinar link: https://www.practicalbioethics.org/events/screening-bioethics-e3/

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Screening Bioethics is a webinar series exploring bioethics topics in popular media with hosts Kayhan Parsi, JD, PhD, and Nanette Elster, JD, MPH. In the third episode they will examine and discuss relevant ethical issues about breast cancer and breast cancer risk as depicted in both fictional and d...

09/03/2026

PLEASE JOIN US for Breakfast of Champions 🏆 🏆 🏆

Thursday, September 17, 2026 from 7:30 am to 9:30 am
Sporting Park, Kansas City, KS

HONORING ETHICS CHAMPION OF THE YEAR
Namir Khandker, MD
Neurosciences Critical Care, Ochsner Medical Center – New Orleans

Read more about Dr. Khandker and Clinical Ethics Services: https://www.practicalbioethics.org/whats-new/ethics-champion-2026-dr-namir-khandkers-proactive-approach-to-clinical-ethics/

Sponsorships Available
Come as our Guest, Individual Tickets -- No Charge

Learn more and registration for Breakfast of Champions: https://www.practicalbioethics.org/events/2026-breakfast-of-champions/

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08/27/2026

Bioethics Case Study on Vaccinating Children
A five-year old child and parents visit the pediatrician whereas the parents have a heated exchange about the effectiveness and efficacy of a vaccine, but especially so about its safety. What should the pediatrician do?

https://www.practicalbioethics.org/resources/case-studies/case-study-vaccinating-children/

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Bioethics case study on vaccinating children.