Center for Healthcare Ethics Lecture Series to Discuss Moral Courage

The Center for Healthcare Ethics will host Moral Courage: An Unsung Resource for Optimizing Health Care Practices, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 7, Power Center Ballroom as part of the David F. Kelly Bioethics Lectures.

Dr. Ruth B. Purtilo

Moral courage most often is treated as a moral trait of individuals who speak up, step out or stand firm in situations that threaten moral values. But it is seldom viewed as a way to help transform individual situations or alter basic institutional practices.

Keynote speaker Dr. Ruth B. Purtilo, who will be introduced by President Charles J. Dougherty, will discuss five “constituents of courage” that can act as guides promoting purposive action for the common good in healthcare settings and the role of spiritual formation as an aspect of empowerment for moral courage. Purtilo is professor emerita at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Institute of Health Professions and a senior research professor at the MGH Nursing Research Center.

Following the lecture, attendees are invited to the unveiling and book signing of the second edition of Contemporary Catholic Health Care Ethics, co-authored by David F. Kelly; Dr. Gerard Magill, the Vernon F. Gallagher Chair for the Integration of Science, Theology, Philosophy and Law; and Dr. Henk ten Have, director of the Center for Healthcare Ethics. President Dougherty will be presented with the first signed copy of the book. Also on display will be the center’s latest publication, the Handbook of Global Bioethics, in four volumes, covering the development of bioethics across the world.

The David F. Kelly Bioethics Lecture invites nationally and internationally prominent scholars to lecture at Duquesne each fall and spring semester on current and emerging topics in bioethics. The purpose of the series is to provide ethics leadership on the crucial issues in health care today.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Glory Smith at 412.396.4504 or visit the center’s website.