CW: mention of some extreme (but real) health injustices and harm done to people and groups because of it.
This past week was a full-service one for me: after two days of teaching, I flew from Boston to Portland, Oregon for the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities meeting. This is a group of medical professionals, including clinicians, directors of programs, patients’ rights lawyers, clinical ethicists working in hospitals, researchers, and a smattering of philosophers.
I was there to give a talk on GLP-1 (weight-loss) drugs and the complexity of hunger. This is one of two health ethics projects my friend Norah and I are working on these days. More on that in another blog post.
Here are some of the fascinating and important topics people are working on that I Iearned more about:
- pregnancy in prison, and the practice of shackling pregnant people during labor and childbirth
- how ranking hospitals (e.g. US News rankings) can affect medical policies around managing cancer care
- what we can learn from our dogs about euthanasia and end-of-life care for ourselves and our human loved ones
- what’s so special about cancer: opioid prescribing for pain and the need for improved and more consistent guidelines across diagnoses
I met lots of interesting and nice people (including a bunch who live in the Boston area) and also saw some colleagues I hadn’t run into in a long time. It was great to see bioethicist Peggy Battin, who is famous for her work on assisted suicide, among many other things. She gave a powerful TED talk in 2014 on her experiences around her husband Brooke’s death five years after he suffered a broken neck in a bike accident. I regularly show this to my students in my Contemporary Moral Problems class during our module on end-of-life ethical issues.
Because we were in Portland, Norah and I had to sneak away from the conference for a couple of hours to go to the Portland Japanese Garden. We were treated to fall colors as well as the varied shades of green in the moss and leaves.
There was a bridge/walkway over and around a pond with large and beautiful fish, several other water features, and a lovely zen garden, carpeted with white Canadian rocks.
You may be wondering, what about that llama? Yes, there was a llama– Caesar, the no-drama llama, a prominent Portland celebrity, visited the conference on Friday for a meet-and-greet and photo ops. If you want a moment of respite from our harsh world, look at the video of Caesar here.
Norah and I of course got our pictures taken with Caesar. He is sweet and calm and oh so fluffy!
Everyone gets tired occasionally, especially when they’re the object of so much attention. Caesar is capable of extraordinary ranges of emotion, and his yawn is a sight to see.
Despite two cross-country flights, I am feeling refreshed and energized, ready to continue my research work, pursue more fall nature, and keep an eye our for fluffy animal encounters.
Readers, how was your week? Did you get to pet any nice creatures? Stroll through nature? Expand your mental horizons? I’d love to hear from you.
