Dignity and Healthcare at End-of-Life: Abrahamic Faiths in a Bioethics Conversation

Event Overview

This one-day event was hosted by Bayan Claremont and co-organized by the Initiative on Islam & Medicine, and sponsored by the Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID). A range of experts, including medical practitioners, academics, and religious leaders from Muslim, Jewish, and Christian backgrounds, examined theological, scientific, and legal dimensions of human dignity and of the healthcare practices and debates surrounding end-of-life. Participants acquired knowledge regarding current thinking at the intersection of religion and care of the dying across the Abrahamic communities, and become better equipped to engage the issues with colleagues, patients, and community members.

Details about the speakers and their talks can be found here. 

Opening Remarks

Panel 1: Defining Dignity: Theological Roots of the Concept within the Abrahamic Traditions

• Dignity in Christian Thought – Dr. Dan Sulmasy (University of Chicago School of Medicine)

• Dignity in Jewish Tradition: Its Role in End-of-Life Care – Rabbi Dr. Barry Kinzbrunner (VITAS Healthcare)

• Dignity in the Islamic Tradition – Shaykh Yassir Fazaga (Orange County Islamic Foundation)

Panel 2: Moral and Medical Tensions in an Age of “Medicalized” Care for the Dying

• Ars moriendi, the Art of Dying Well – Dr. Lydia Dugdale (Yale School of Medicine)
• Lessons from “a Goses” – Dr. Kenneth Prager (Columbia University Medical Center)
• Islamic Perspectives on Clinical Intervention at the End-of-Life: We Can but Must We? – Dr. Aasim Padela (University of Chicago School of Medicine)

Panel 3: Religious and Professional Narratives on Being Present and Witnessing the End of Life

• Walking the Path through the Wilderness of Grief: A Spiritual Journey – Rabbi Anne Brener (Academy for Jewish Religion, California)
• Neural Substrates of Consciousness and Metaphysics of the Soul – Dr. Faisal Qazi (Stroke Center, San Antonio Community Hospital)
• Accompanying the Dying: Muslim and Christian Perspectives – Rev. Dr. Patrick J. Ryan (Fordham University)

Dinner Banquet Keynote Address

• Dying with Dignity – Dr. Eba Hathout (Hassan Hathout Legacy Foundation)