Centre for Bioethics

The Centre for Bioethics at Memorial University involves bioethics research, teaching, and service. Our four faculty members supervise students in our Master of Health Ethics program.

As researchers we study areas of bioethics such as research ethics, public health ethics, reproductive ethics, and the ethics of genetic research. We provide clinical ethics support in various forms to the province’s health care institutions.


Impact Ethics

forum for discussion of and commentary on bioethical issues, presenting a diverse range of voices and perspectives. 


Symposium

MAiD in Canada: A Sober Second Look

Memorial University, Signal Hill Campus
St. John’s, Canada

Sept. 27-28, 2024

In the eight years since Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) became legal in Canada, Canada has become one of the most liberal MAiD regimes in the world. The Centre for Bioethics at Memorial University is hosting an international symposium to consider what has been happening in this space, how we as a country got to where we are in this regard, and what if anything we should be doing differently moving forward. We welcome abstracts on any aspect of this topic.

Plenary speakers for this event include Trudo Lemmens (Faculty of Law, University of Toronto), Isabel Grant (Faculty of Law, University of British Columbia), and Scott Kim (Department of Bioethics, National Institutes of Health, USA). Symposium proceedings will be published in a special issue of the Canadian Journal of Bioethics. 

Those wishing to present a paper should submit an abstract in Word format (300 words max) by June 14th, 2024. Abstracts should be prepared for blind review, with name, institutional affiliation, and contact information on a separate title page. Please send abstracts to bioethics@mun.ca, with “MAiD Symposium” in the subject line. Decisions will be made by June 30th, 2024.

The symposium will take place at Memorial’s Signal Hill campus, against the backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean and the iconic Signal Hill National Historic Site.