The Dossetor Centre reaches out to scholars, students, health-care practitioners, clinical ethics committee members, health-care administrators, patients and their families, media and the general public through:

  • Health Ethics Seminar Series
  • Health Ethics Symposium
  • Health Ethics Workshops
  • Grand Rounds
  • Health Ethics Today, a newsletter published two to three times per year with a local, provincial, national, and international distribution list, including all medical doctors across Alberta.
  • Media contacts to discuss health ethics topics in the news

The Dossetor Centre has also developed a partnership with Alberta Health Services to provide support to the clinical ethicists and clinical ethics committees for the University of Alberta Hospital, the Stollery Children's Hospital and the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute.

Conducting research on a broad spectrum of ethical, moral and human-rights issues, including:

  • clinical practice
  • compassion
  • disability ethics
  • human rights
  • mental health
  • moral distress
  • health policy
  • gender issues
  • public health
  • relational ethics
  • neonatology-perinatology
  • professionalism
  • phenomenology

Teaching health ethics to students of all levels across many faculties at the University of Alberta. Education opportunities include:

  • INT D 570: Healthcare Ethics
  • INT D 670: Research Ethics
  • Medical Sub-Specialty Ethics Teaching
  • Undergraduate Medical Student Elective, An Experience in Bioethics

Health Ethics News

  • Unilateral Withdrawal, Technological Creep, and the Role of Proportionality in ECMO Policy

    May 23, 2023

    The two conclusions of the paper by Brendan Leier & Gurmeet Singh, that unilateral withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy is not justified by current ethical constructs, and, accordingly, that it may be possible to justify ECMO as a form of destination therapy poses significant considerations.

  • Health Ethics Today Volume 30(1), May 2023

    May 16, 2023

    Just published! This issue of Health Ethics Today is composed of two contributions from the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre symposium “Bodily Autonomy: an Ethical Dialogue on Gender Rights, Reproductive Freedoms, and Personal Choice”, a hybrid virtual / in-person event held on November 25, 2022.

  • AU honours mental-health advocate

    May 03, 2023

    Mental-health advocate and Dossetor Centre adjunct member, Dr. Austin Mardon, will receive Athabasca University honorary degree in recognition of his extraordinary efforts in his discipline, "recognizing advocacy for education, mental health". Congratulations Austin!

  • Dr. Michael van Manen Reappointment: Chair in Bioethics

    April 12, 2023

    The Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry is pleased to announce the reappointment of Dr. Michael van Manen as the Chair in Bioethics for a five-year term effective March 16, 2023. This endowed chair is supported by generous contributions to the Faculty. Many congratulations, Michael!

  • Begoña Errasti Ibarrondo Adjunct Appointment Expands Teaching and Research in Health Ethics

    February 27, 2023

    Universidad de Navarra Faculty of Nursing Professor Begoña Errasti has been appointed Adjunct Associate Professor with the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre.

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