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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Phone: 215-871-2015

Email: jbrehany@ncbcenter.org

Website: www.ncbcenter.org

 Contact Name: John F. Brehany, PhD

BROOMALL, Pa., October 1, 2024—Today The National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC) is announcing an upcoming symposium, “Integrity in the Concept and Determination of Brain Death,” on February 27-28, 2025, to address emerging questions surrounding clinical, legal, and ethical standards for brain death. The symposium is designed to attract a wide range of clinical, academic, and organizational leaders and to devote significant time to debate and dialogue on these complex issues.

The need for this symposium arose after the American Academy of Neurology, et al., issued updated brain death guidelines shortly after an unsuccessful effort to revise the Uniform Determination of Death Act (UDDA), a development the NCBC addressed in an April 11, 2024 statement.

John Brehany, Executive Vice President and Director of Institutional Relations at the NCBC, stated: “It is critically important to reexamine and re-integrate clinical, legal, and ethical standards for brain death. If we don’t, respect for the sanctity of human life, as well as support for organ transplantation, will be undermined. We look forward to working with a wide range of participants, from within and beyond Catholic health care ministries and universities, to help resolve some outstanding questions at this critical time.”

The NCBC is partnering with the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics (PCCB) and the Center for Law and the Human Person at the Columbus School of Law at The Catholic University of America (CLHP). The symposium will take place February 27-28, 2025, at the Columbus School of Law in Washington, D.C. These partners will be joined by co-sponsors such as the Catholic Medical Association, the Center for Theology and Ethics in Catholic Health of the Catholic Health Association, and Catholic health care ministries, including Franciscan Health and OSF HealthCare.

More information about the symposium’s schedule, speakers, and registration can be found at https://braindeathintegritysymposium.com/. Registration will be available soon.

The National Catholic Bioethics Center provides education, guidance, and resources to the Church and society to uphold the dignity of the human person in health care and biomedical research, thereby sharing in the ministry of Jesus Christ and his Church. The NCBC envisions a world in which the integral understanding of the human person underlying Catholic teaching on respect for human life and dignity is better understood and more widely embraced in America and worldwide. More information can be found at ncbcenter.org.

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