Reproductive Ethics Conference

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Sixth Annual Conference Thursday-Friday, January 13-14, 2022

To be held Virtually

Institute for Bioethics and Health Humanities,
University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas


Keynote Speakers

Thursday, January 13, 2022

Why Not Just Carry To Term And Drop the Baby
Off At the Fire Station?:
The Supreme Court and the Threat to Roe v. Wade

Shoshanna Ehrlich, JD

Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
College of Liberal Arts
University of Massachusetts Boston

The Supreme Court’s refusal to enjoin Texas’ six-week abortion ban offers a chilling glimpse of a post-Roe world. No longer a matter of speculative fiction, this impending reality looms large following oral argument in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in which the solicitor general for Mississippi urged the supermajority of conservative Justices on the Court to overturn Roe and Casey and return the abortion issue “to the people.” 

This talk will shine a spotlight on these two cases and their implications for the future of abortion rights.  It will pay particular attention to the gendered and racialized tropes that have been deployed in favor of dismantling Roe and empowering states to enact abortion bans—an outcome that divests pregnant persons of decisional and bodily integrity, and falls most heavily on those unable to travel to abortion-permissive states. 

 

Friday, January 14, 2022

Conflicting Priorities:
The Complex Reproductive Ethics of Incarceration

Andrea Knittel, MD, PhD, FACOG 


Assistant Professor, Division of General Obstetrics and Gynecology
Medical Director for Incarcerated Women's Health
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill


Incarceration introduces ethical challenges in the provision of reproductive health care across the life course – through adolescence, pregnancy, midlife, and beyond. In this case-based presentation, I will discuss how conflict between the priorities of the patient, provider, and carceral institution complicates consent for medical care, sterilization, management of opioid use disorder in pregnancy, and research participation during incarceration. I will also reflect on the potential ethical quandary introduced by the conflicting goals of prison abolition and improving conditions of confinement.


Conference Schedule

Speaker Directory

Registration Closed

The controversies and challenges of reproductive ethics arise from new technologies, political and ideological divisions, theology, and changing cultural norms. The goal of this conference is to explore the range of topics addressed in reproductive ethics. We welcome individuals from all professional fields to create a rich and robust discussion.

Previous Conference Schedule: Click Here

 

Conference Collaborators:

Conference Organizer:
Lisa Campo-Engelstein, PhD
Director, Institute for Bioethics and Health Humanities
licampoe@utmb.edu

Paul_BurcherPaul Burcher, MD, PhD
WellSpan Health

Claire_horner2Claire Horner, JD, MA
Baylor College of Medicine Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy

Claussen, Beverly 2020_adjConference Administrator:
Beverly Claussen
Sr. Administrative Manager, Institute for Bioethics and Health Humanities
beclauss@utmb.edu