History

The University of Alberta’s John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre is located on lands that are now known as part of Treaties 6, 7 and 8, a traditional meeting ground and gathering place of Indigenous peoples, including the Néhiyaw (Cree), Anishinaabe (Ojibway/Saulteaux), Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), Nakoda (Stoney), and Métis.

This account of the history of the Dossetor Health Ethics Centre recognizes that interpretation of the past is based on the values, knowledge, and cultural context of the      present moment. It acknowledges that histories are told, invariably privileging one perspective over another.

The history of the Centre reflects the value of interdisciplinarity, beginning with gatherings of individuals from medicine (John Dossetor, David Schiff), nursing (Janet Storch, Donna Smith), chaplaincy (Doug Cossor, Cullene Bryant), law (Ellen Picard, Margaret Shone), and philosophy (Glenn Griener) in the early 1980s. This group met regularly to discuss challenging clinical cases related to the ethics of decision-making. Over time, these meetings spurred planning for a health ethics centre, which was initiated in 1985. The Joint Faculties Bioethics Project was launched in 1986 with encouragement and support from the Presidents of the University of Alberta, the University Hospitals, the Deans of the health faculties, and the Medical Research Council of Canada.    

Over the subsequent years, the Joint Faculties Bioethics Project supported interdisciplinary ethics scholarship in education, research, and clinical service. For example, John Dossetor, Glenn Griener, and Tom Dailey, cooperated to develop a clinical ethics curriculum in concert with clinical experts in various medical specialties. A collaborative conference with the Hastings Center bioethics research institute in 1989 was a highlight from these early years. In 1990, bioethics was given official university status with the creation of the Division of Bioethics. The Division and the Joint Faculties Bioethics Project comprised the Bioethics Centre. In January 1998, in recognition of his contributions to health ethics at the University of Alberta, the Centre was renamed The John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre. The change  In January 1998, in recognition of his contributions to health ethics at the University of Alberta, the Centre was renamed The John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre. The change to “health ethics” from “bioethics” indicated a broader focus on ethics across health domains than the more specialized, technical focus of bioethics.

John Dossetor is regarded as a central figure in the history of the Centre. In addition to his involvement described above, he was appointed as Director and, later, first Professor of Bioethics, at the University of Alberta.

Vangie Bergum, Faculty of Nursing, is another key figure in the history of the Dossetor Centre. Her research situated ethics within human relationships. She explored the experience of mothering. Her work on relational ethics supported an interdisciplinary research project resulting in the 2005 book Relational Ethics. The Full Meaning of Respect (co-authored with Dossetor).

Paul Byrne, from the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, supported the Centre throughout his career at the University of Alberta in clinical ethics; education of students in medicine, nursing, and other health science disciplines; and, research projects on such topics as ethical decision making in perinatal medicine.

Wendy Austin, from the Faculty of Nursing, explored core elements of relational ethics and their application in healthcare environments. Her research programs’ aims included identifying and exploring relational ethics issues in mental health, developing a relational ethics perspective on research ethics, exploring ways to prepare healthcare practitioners and researchers for ethical practice, and advancing the theoretical basis of relational ethics.    

Dick Sobsey, Educational Psychology, worked to improve healthcare, educational opportunities, and social conditions for people with disabilities and their families. He studied the changes in families that occur as a result of having a child with a significant disability, focusing on positive changes. And he explored ethical and human rights issues, particularly as they are related to people with disabilities.

Gary Goldsand, Brendan Leier, and other clinical ethicists supported the development of ethics education, public engagement, and other centre activities.

The Dossetor Centre would not have survived without the commitment and work of administrative leads such as Carol Nahorniak, who have managed the Centre over the years.

The John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre came under the aegis of the Coordinating Council of Health Sciences (renamed Health Sciences Council in 2001) until it moved under the Faculty of Medicine in 2010. Throughout its history, the Centre has benefited from interdisciplinary collaboration, including but not limited to, Nursing, Medicine, Rehabilitation Medicine, Law, Philosophy, and Spiritual Care. The John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre is the only interdisciplinary, academic ethics centre in Alberta, and one of the first in Canada. The Dossetor Centre directly supported Clinical Ethics at the University of Alberta until 2023. During this time, the Centre supported an inclusive ethical environment valuing varied disciplinary, community, and other ways of knowing.

This telling of the history of the Centre may be understood as privileging a perspective which values interdisciplinarity and health ethics scholarship grounded in clinical practice.  This narrative does not give voice to how the discipline of health ethics is situated within a larger history of medical colonialism.

Given the Centre bears the name of John Dossetor, it is important to acknowledge the legacy of his involvement in medical research conducted in Igloolik, Nunavut during the early 1970s. These skin-graft studies on immune response for organ transplantation research have been a subject of ethical scrutiny and legal action. His own writings in his 2005 memoir, Beyond the Hippocratic Oath: A Memoir on the Rise of Modern Medical Ethics, expresses that his team had not done enough to secure meaningful consent. When appraising this work, it is important to consider the value of honoring relationships, minimizing risk, cultural humility, power differentials, individual trauma, and community engagement.