Bioethics for the People

Animals, Food, and Bioethics

Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

You are what you eat? In this episode, Devan and Tyler talk with Profs Amy Lewis and Enza Rocco about food, animals, and cats.

Amy Lewis is the Associate Chair of the English Department at the Community College of Philadelphia. Her interest in bioethics comes not from any specific professional affiliation or degree program but rather a lifetime of loving to help people and animals. Since she lacks the scientific aptitude to help anyone medically, she has devoted her life to helping through other means, be it education, activism, philanthropy (small scale because, again, she's an educator), and other support projects. Her professional and educational interests largely center on promoting equitable access to education for all so no one's dreams are constrained by their socio-economic status (a tall order, she knows), and her activism focuses mostly on helping rescue groups - particularly ones assisting Philadelphia's crisis-level homeless cat problem. To that interest, she tries to support groups like Philadelphia Urgent Rescue and Relief (PURR) and Temple Cats in whatever ways she can. If one does not want to adopt a cat, one should not speak to Amy for more than a few minutes because she WILL try to send you home with at least one.

Enza Rocco is the Assistant Director of the Master's Program in Urban Bioethics in the Center for Urban Bioethics in the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, where she also serves as an Assistant Professor. By training, Enza is a social worker, bioethicist, and lawyer. Enza earned her MSW from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy & Practice in 2009. She earned her master's in bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine in 2009. In 2012, Enza graduated with her JD from Temple University Beasley School of Law. Before and during law school, Enza worked as a geriatric social worker and helped to found and lead an age-in-place initiative in Wilmington, Delaware. Her academic and research focus is in legal and ethical issues in end-of-life care and food justice. At Temple, Enza leads a food insecurity program out of the Center for Urban Bioethics and the St. Christopher's Foundation for Children called Farm to Families which brings organic, local fruit and vegetables to North Philly residents at low-or-no cost, as well as other community programs. Enza has the honor of teaching ethics to a variety of students at Temple, including medical students, physician assistants, residents, physicians, social workers, therapists, and dental residents and dental students. Enza is a certified national healthcare ethics consultant and serves on Temple University Hospital's Ethics Committee, as well as a variety of other committees.

Death, Dying, and Hospice in the USA

Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

Dr. Harold Braswell shares his research into the history of US hospice system and reforms that could improve how we die in America.

Check out more of Prof Braswell’s work here:

• Braswell, Harold (2019) “The Crisis of US Hospice Care: Family and Freedom at the End of Life” Johns Hopkins University Press

• Braswell, Harold (2019) “Love and Other Disabilities” Tablet Magazine

• Braswell, Harold (2018) “Putting the “Right to Die” in Its Place: Disability Rights and Physician-Assisted Suicide in the Context of US End-of-Life Care” Studies in Law, Politics, and Society

• Braswell, Harold (2017) “From Disability Rights to the Rights of the Dying (and Back Again)” Laws

• Braswell, Harold "Why Do Police Keep Seeing a Person's Disability as a Provocation?" Washington Post, (August 25, 2014).

#FreeBritney, Guardians & Conservators

Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

In 2003, Britney Spears, the superstar pop singer, had all of her legal rights taken away from her and given to her father. Over the past decade, a concerted effort has been underway to #FreeBritney. The process that led to her ability to make decisions for herself is called guardianship or conservatorship. In this episode, Devan and Tyler talk through the process, the reasons it is helpful for many individuals and patients, but also the potential issues that arise when someone’s legal power to direct their own lives is upset.

Read More about #FreeBritney, Conservatorship & Guardians here:

• “Britney Spears’ Conservatorship is terminated after 13 years,” Washington Post (Nov 12, 2021).

• “Why Longtime Britney Spears fans are Demanding to #FreeBritney,” Harpers Bazaar (Nov 12, 2021).

• “Spears case spotlights state efforts to rein in conservators,” PBS News Hour (Oct 01, 2021)

• “Public Conservatorship: An Ancient, Evolving Tool for Our Most Vulnerable Patients,” Proceedings of UCLA Health (2018).

Religious Exemptions for Vaccine Mandates

Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

Dr. Michael Deem joins us to explore religion, theology, and religious exemptions to mandatory COVID-19 vaccine requirements.

Michael Deem is an associate professor in the Center for Bioethics & Health Law at the University of Pittsburgh. He is an expert on bioethics, specifically the ethics related to Genomic Medicine and Catholic Theology.

Check out more of Prof Deem’s work:

• Deem, MJ (2021) “Catholics, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and an unnecessary moral problem” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Mar 9, 2021.

• Deem, MJ (2021) “What the Bishops are Saying about Vaccine Mandates” The Pillar.

• Radio interview on Catholic morality and the COVID-19 vaccines, Al Kresta in Afternoon

• Sinclair Group on political hurdles to vaccine mandates for adults

• NPR on adolescents receiving COVID-19 vaccine without parental consent

• NPR on crossing state-lines for scarce COVID-19 vaccines

• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (local) on religious views on COVID-19 vaccines

• Deem, MJ (2017) “Responding to Parents who Refuse Childhood Immunizations” Nursing Vol 47:12, p. 11-14.

COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates, Employee Rights, and Exemptions

Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

What is going on with COVID-19 vaccine mandates? Are vaccine mandates legal or ethical? Exemptions— are those allowed and what are they?

Professor Elizabeth Pendo, an expert on health law, disability rights, and bioethics at Saint Louis University School of Law, helps us understand what is going on with COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Prof. Pendo talks about the reasons why employers might create a requirement for a vaccine, and also what rights employees have.

Check out more from the episode and Prof Pendo’s work below:

• COVID-19 Employee Health Checks, Remote Work, and Disability Law

• Resolving Tensions Between Disability Rights Law and COVID-19 Mask Policies

• Yang, Y. Tony and Pendo, Elizabeth and Reiss, Dorit Rubinstein, The Americans with Disabilities Act and Healthcare Employer-Mandated Vaccinations. 38(16) Vaccine 3184 (Apr. 3, 2020), UC Hastings Research Paper No. 390, Saint Louis U. Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2020-12, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3614824

• Pendo, Elizabeth, Protecting the Rights and Wellbeing of People with Disabilities during the COVID-19 Pandemic (February 15, 2021). Burris, S., de Guia, S., Gable, L., Levin, D.E., Parmet, W.E., Terry, N.P. (Eds.) (2021). COVID-19 Policy Playbook: Legal Recommendations for a Safer, More Equitable Future. Boston: Public Health Law Watch., Saint Louis U. Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2021-12, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3812630

Halloween Special

Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

In the first ever repeat guest appearance on the Podcast, the amazingly talented and sassy fan favorite, Dr. Darian Goldin Stahl, joins Tyler and Devan again for a spooky ooky Halloween episode. Will there be books bound in human skin? Will there be Murder and Mayhem? Will Darian tell us another ghost story? Check out the episode to find out.

Check out some of the things we discussed in this episode here:

• Charuchandra, Sukanya. 2019. Deathly Displays, circa 1662–1731: Frederik Ruysch’s collections blended specimens for scientific discovery with macabre art. December 1. 

• Ebenstein, Joanna. 2016. The Anatomical Venus. London: Thames and Hudson.

• Kooijmans, Luuc. 2014. Frederik Ruysch The Artist of Death. March 5. 

• Meli, Domenico Bertoloni. 2017. Visualizing Disease: The Art and History of Pathological Illustration. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

• Stahl, Devan. 2013. “Living Into the Imagined Body” Medical Humanities 39(1):53-8

Also, to learn more about Darian and what she’s been up to since her last appearance on Bioethics for the People, check out: http://www.dariangoldinstahl.com/

Solving the Opioid Epidemic

Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

In this episode, Tyler and Devan talk with Dr. Travis Rieder about opioids, addition, and a motorcycle accident that changed his life. Travis is an expert of pain, addiction, and the opioid crisis.

Check out more from this episode, as well as Dr. Rieder’s other work below.

• Travi’s Book In Pain: A Bioethicist’s Personal Struggle with Opioids

• Travis’ Interview on Fresh Air with Terry Gross

• Rieder, “America’s Other Opioid Problem,” Psychology Today

• Rieder, “What Chronic-Pain Patients are Deeply Afraid Of,” New York Times

• Rieder, “In Opioid Withdrawal with No End in Sight,” Health Affairs 36(1): 2017.

The Ethics of Kidney Donation

Tyler Gibb and Devan Stahl

Learn more about Martha Gershun and Dr. John Lantos

Find a copy of the book here

Op-Ed by the authors

Facebook Page

More information on how to donate a kidney

Season 2 Trailer

Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

We are doing things a little differently this season. Join us to hear about new and exciting topics in bioethics, health care, medicine, and society! As always, we are keeping it conversational, fun, and accessible.

Darian Goldin Stahl, “Glory,” Water transfer, 30” x 22,” 2021.

Hot Take #4: Cutting the Line

Devan Stahl and Tyler Gibb

The rollout of the COVID19 vaccine has been…interesting, to say the least. There have been many news stories about folks jumping in line to get their vaccines. Is this ever ethical? What should you do if you are given an opportunity for a vaccine, but don’t feel like you should? Devan and Tyler talk about some of the hiccups in the vaccine roll out.

• “The Vaccine had to be Used. He Used It. He was Fired,” The New York Times (Feb 10, 2021).

• “How People are Jumping the COVID-19 Vaccine Line,” NPR News (Feb 9, 2021).

• “Line-Jumping to get COVID-19 vaccine could be costly, to someone else,” WWMT News (Feb 8, 2021).

• “Is It Ever OK to Jump Ahead in the Vaccine Line?” NPR News (Feb 6, 2021)