Center for Bioethics Events

Dr. Taylor had an illustrious and long career in medicine with a large portion occurring at OSU. He graduated from Harvard University in 1978 and from The Ohio State University School of Medicine in 1985. He completed his residency in Neurology at Dartmouth Medical School and returned to Ohio to start a private practice in Neurology and then worked in the Department of Neurology at OSU. His inquisitive mind drew him to explore the new burgeoning field of palliative care and medical ethics. He helped to develop a renowned palliative care program at Mount Carmel Health System that became a national benchmark for community-based palliative care programs and he completed a fellowship in Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. While at Mount Carmel Hospital, a family member who happened to be in the James Cancer Hospital leadership was so impressed with the care provided to his father by Dr. Taylor, that he recruited him to OSU to develop the Palliative Care program. Dr. Taylor served as the Director for Palliative Medicine from 2006-2012 and continued as part of the Division of Palliative Medicine as well as the Director of Clinical Ethics until 2017. During his tenure at OSU, he also served as the Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship Program Director from 2007-2010 and as Chief of Staff of the James Cancer Hospital from 2013-2015. During the last few years, Dr. Taylor served as the Associate Medical Director and Chair of the Ethics Committee of Care Dimensions Hospice House in Waltham, Massachusetts before retiring and returning to Columbus in May 2020. During his many years at OSU, he was the consummate mentor and teacher to many. His approach to teaching was expansive, often elucidating the intersection between ethics, palliative care and humanism through lectures, small group discussions, the exploration of great literature, one-on-one discussions over coffee and exquisite bedside clinical care. He introduced palliative care and ethics to a whole new generation of physicians, nurses and interdisciplinary team members. His impact on Ethics and Palliative Care was felt far beyond OSU. He served on the Academic Task Force for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine in addition to the Palliative Care Panel for the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. On a state level, he served on the Board of Trustees for the BioEThics Network of Ohio and the Public Policy Committee for the Ohio Hospice and Palliative Care Organization. With numerous articles, book chapters, national and local presentations, he pushed those around him to think critically and provide compassionate person-centered care. Above all, he was kind and generous and modeled his belief to live each day to its fullest.

Dr. Mekhjian, among many other things, was the long-time Chief Medical Officer for the Ohio State University Medical Center. In his decades of leadership, he impacted multiple areas. Throughout his career and even in his retirement, Dr. Mekhjian shares a passion for virtuous medicine. Before his retirement, he championed medical ethics and professionalism. Through his efforts and the generosity of several of his friends (including George and Tina Skestos), he formed the annual Institutional Grand Rounds in Medical Ethics and Professionalism and an Endowed Chair in Medical Ethics and Professionalism, both which now bear his name. Dr. Mekhjian helped recruit and mentor the first Mekhjian Chair and founding director of the Center for Bioethics, Dr. Nash.

For more on Dr. Mekhjian, please explore the links below:

https://www.dispatch.com/article/20130728/news/307289842

Chauncey Leake was a leader at OSU’s College of Medicine from 1956-1962. He has a remarkable career at OSU and beyond. A pharmacologist by training, he pioneered departments of pharmacology. He was a successful research scientist. But in this lectureship we remember his contribution to medical ethics, history of medicine, and medical humanities. This lectureship and essay award was established shortly after Dr. Leake’s death in 1978. Notably, Dr. Leake died doing one of the things he loved – he was reading original poetry on stage at a gathering in his honor.

To learn more about Dr. Leake, explore the links below:

https://www.nytimes.com/1978/01/13/archives/dr-chauncey-d-leake-dies-at-81-pharmacologist-and-administrator.html

https://muse.jhu.edu/article/541959

https://calisphere.org/item/888d91b6-c2e2-40f3-b6a3-8c11c1112be3/

H. Tristram Engelhardt, MD, PhD was never student, trainee, nor faculty at OSU. Why then is he remembered annually here? He was the primary mentor for Dr. Nash, the founding director for the Center. As such, he helped guide the Center’s formation and he influenced all of the early members of the Center (even those who disagreed with him). In the formation of this Award and lecture the Center furthers 1) that one does not know bioethics without knowing the work of Engelhardt, we thus show gratitude for his contribution and 2) that we must take ethical diversity seriously and not pretend that all issues are settled or agreed upon. Engelhardt was an unparalleled scholar and great thinker. While having command over procedural and policy issues of bioethics, he demanded considerations at the foundational level. He did not shy away from controversy but instead leaned into it. He included robust considerations of ethics from theological or religious perspective as well, a perspective our Center explicitly engages.

http://www.bioethics.net/2018/06/a-tribute-to-professor-h-tristram-engelhardt-jr-phd-md-1941-2018/

https://journalofethics.ama-assn.org/article/h-tristram-engelhardt-jr-md-phd/2002-02

https://www.youtube.com/user/ndethics/search?query=engelhardt

Founded in 2012 in Chicago, The Conference on Medicine and Religion has become annual conference drawing participants from across the country and around the globe. The OSU Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities is among the list of prestigious institutions that sponsors and hosts the event.

http://www.medicineandreligion.com/

The OSU Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities works closely with and partners with the OSU Center for Ethics and Human Values. While CEHV has a broader scope than biomedicine, they help the conversations in bioethics reach across our campus and community.

https://cehv.osu.edu/

• 2015 H. Tristram Engelhardt “Professional Moral Conscience in an Age after Morality”
• 2016 Rabbi Samuel E. Karff "The Re-emergence of the Healer in an Age of High-Tech Medicine"
• 2017 Kevin Sabet “Is Marijuana the next Big Tobacco?”
• 2018 Lydia Dugdale “Pros and Cons of Physician-Assisted Suicide (Aid in Dying)”
• 2019 Timothy Murphy “The Ethics of Body Modification for Gender Expression”
• 2020 Dónal O’Mathuna “Allocating Resources Ethically during COVID-19 - From Ventilators to Vaccines”
• 2021 R. Sean Morrison “The Privilege and Complexities of End of Life Care”
• 2022 Eric Singer “Moral Incontinence: Diagnostic and Therapeutic Interventions for Medical Education”
• 2023 Larry Churchill “Fundamental Healing and Ethical Skills for Health Professionals”
• 2026 John Rhee “Flourishing and Virtue at the End of Life”

• 2015 Mark Wells “Orthopedists and Traditional Bonesetters: Managing Interprofessional Tensions in International Medicine” 2016 no award winner
• 2017 Ethan Schimmoeller “Cannabis and the Cult of the Body”
• 2018 Molly Larson “Implications of Personhood Following Traumatic Brain Injury: Use of an Integrated and Evolving Model”
• 2019 Phillip Wozniak “Of Artificial Wombs and Actual Births: A Defense of the Biobag”
• 2020 no student winner this year due to COVID-19
• 2022 no student winner
• 2023 no student winner

• 2015 Ruiping Fan “Conscientious Objection to VSED: What can China Learn from American Bioethics?”
• Dr. Fan was the first recipient of this award. Dr. H. Tristram Engelhardt was present and received an honorary award as well.
• 2016 Corinna Delkeskamp-Hayes “‘Foundations’ of Bioethics? How they float on a moral choice
• 2017 John F. Peppin “The Death of Pain Medicine: The Case of Marijuana”
• 2018 Mark Cherry “Should Adolescents be Permitted to Consent to Medical Research on Their Own Behalf?”
• 2019 Ana Iltis “Health Inequities as a Research Ethics Problem”
• 2021 Jeffrey Bishop “Living in the Wounds of Secularity Christian Musings on Healing Medicine’s Secular/Religious Divide”
• 2022 no speaker
• 2023 Laurie Zoloth “Suffering and its Uselessness”
• 2023 Farr Culin “Secular Medicine in the Saeculum: An Honored but Humble Servant”
• 2026 Daniel Sulmasy “Profession, Prophesy, and Healing”

• 2009 Edmund Pellegrino “Human Dignity and Bioethics”
• 2010 Ellen Wright Clayton “Genetic Testing: Ethical Dilemmas”
• 2011- Mark Siegler “Should Elective Surgical Patients be invited to Serve as Living Kidnery Donors?”
• 2012 Robert Troug “Talking with Patients and Families About Medical Errors”
• 2013 Jeffrey Bishop “Popular (NEURO)Science and other Political Schemes”
• 2014 John Lantos “Family Requests for Futile Treatment”
• 2015 Lauris Kaldjian “Concepts of Health and Goals of Care in Shared Clinical Decision Making”
• 2016 Farr Curlin “What Does Religion Have to Do With Medicine?”
• 2017 David Casarett “Is medical marijuana really ‘medical’?”
• 2018 Abraham Nussbaum “An Attempt to Speak to a Broad Medical Crowd While Addressing a Current Issue (Physician Resiliency) and Using an Approach Appropriate for the Setting (Medical Humanities)”
• 2019 Joseph Fins “Disorders of Consciousness, Past, Present and Future: Clinical, Neuroethical and Legal Implications of Medial Progress”
• 2020 Darrell Gray “Bringing the ‘Moral Determinants of Health’ to the Bench, Bedside and Community”
• 2021 Paul A. Offit “Vaccine Safety Regulations Are Built on Four Historic”
• 2022 Ellen Fox "Ethics Consultation in U.S. Hospitals: State of the Art"
• 2023 Christine Grady “On Moral Strength”
• 2024 Carl Elliott “The Occasional Human Sacrifice: Blowing the Whistle on Unethical Medical Research”
• 2025 Anita Ho “Artificial Intelligence and Medical Professionalism”
• 2026 Daniel Sulmasy "Physician Assisted Suicide: Medical, Ethical, and Social Issues"

• 2021 BJ Miller "Following the Science: The Lessons of Advance Care Planning”
• 2022 Ira Byock “Making Whole Person Caring the New Normal Palliative Care’s Role in Authentic Healthcare Transformation”
• 2023 Finly Zachariah “Evaluating an AI Model and Applications for Goal-Concordant Care”
• 2024 Yael Schenker “Engaging Patients with Advanced Cancer in Advance Care Planning"
• 2025 Nancy Berlinger “Reducing Caregiver Burden: Toward Improved Ethics Guidance in Decision-Making and Care Near the End of Life”