Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics conference on ‘Fertility, Infertility and Gender’

22 Jun 2010

PRESS RELEASE
22 June 2010

Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics conference on ‘Fertility, Infertility and Gender’

An international group of around 100 delegates met in St Patrick College, Maynooth, on 16 to 18 June, for a conference run by the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics.  The conference addressed the theme of ‘Fertility, Infertility and Gender’.    The Linacre Centre is a Catholic academic institute that engages with the moral questions arising in clinical practice and biomedical research.  The Linacre Centre has recently moved from London to Oxford, and will be changing its name to the ‘Anscombe Bioethics Centre’ after the renowned Catholic philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe.  Dr Mary Geach, daughter of Elizabeth Anscombe, presented and attended the Maynooth conference.

Delegates attended from as far afield as Australia, Nigeria, Malta and Sweden.  A series of well-researched interdisciplinary papers were presented on a range of bioethical topics of contemporary importance such as reproductive and sexual health and ethics, including ‘The effect on children of the reproductive revolution’.  The conference proceedings will be published in due course; in the meantime the Centre remains available for advice at www.linacre.org.

The three Catholic bishops’ conferences of the islands (Ireland, Scotland and England & Wales) nominate members to the board of the Linacre Centre.  Further information on this conference can be obtained from Dr Helen Watt, Director of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics, on [email protected].

ENDS

Notes for Editors:

  • The Linacre Centre is a Catholic academic institute that engages with the moral questions arising in clinical practice and biomedical research. It brings to bear on those questions principles of natural law, virtue ethics, and the teaching of the Catholic Church, and seeks to develop the implications of that teaching for emerging fields of practice.  The Centre engages in scholarly dialogue with academics and practitioners of other traditions.  It contributes to public policy debates as well as to debates and consultations within the Church. It runs educational programmes for, and gives advice to, Catholics and other interested healthcare professionals and biomedical scientists.
  • Topics discussed at the conference included: marriage, fertility and celibacy: Biblical perspectives; psychological issues in gender identity; marriage, singleness and homosexuality; Love, unity and contraception; Population growth and control; STDs, teenage pregnancy and abstinence strategies; Assisted conception: ethical approaches; IVF and sexual ethics; the effects on children of the reproductive revolution.
  • Speakers included: Fr Paul Mankowski, Professor Luke Gormally, Dr Philip Sutton, Professor Alexander Pruss, Dr Dermot Grenham, Dr Kevin O’Reilly, Professor David Paton, Dr Phil Boyle, Dr Mary Geach, Fr Kevin Flannery and Elizabeth Marquadt.
  • Photographs from the conference are available on request from Brenda Drumm

Further information:
Brenda Drumm, Communications Officer 087 310 4444