SLU Bioethics

Helen Webster (HCE Ph.D. Student and SLU Health Law Alum '24) will be presenting at the Legal Scholars in Health Sciences Workshop in Atlanta which is an annual event held before the Health Law Professors Conference!

Benjamin Parvis, (HCE Ph.D. Candidate) wrote a piece for the Intersections blog for the Center of Bioethics and Human Dignity called “Making Physician-Assisted Su***de Unthinkable” which you can read here: https://www.cbhd.org/intersections/making-physician-assisted-su***de-unthinkable

The piece led to a radio interview on May 29th with Coffee Hour on KFUO which is the national radio station for the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod of which Parviz is a member. Listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mci7oaXywk

Making Physician-Assisted Su***de Unthinkable | Intersections | The Center for Bioethics & Human Dignity Physician-assisted su***de (PAS) is now legally available in 13 U.S. states and Washington, DC, and to the more than 100 million residents of those jurisdictions. Following the removal of residency requirements from eligibility criteria in Oregon and Vermont in 2023, anyone who has the means to trav...

Annemarie Starr, joint-PhD candidate in Theology and Health Care Ethics, has just published an article in the journal ‘Linacre Quarterly' entitled “Of Fasts and Feasts: Catholic Ethics and the Right Use of GLP-1 Agonists for Weight Loss”:

Of Fasts and Feasts: Catholic Ethics and the Right Use of GLP-1 Agonists for Weight Loss - Annemarie Y. A. Starr, 2026 Can Catholics ethically use GLP-1 agonists to pursue the goal of weight loss? I argue that the goal of maintaining a healthy weight should serve the further end...

Congratulations to Andy Baldassarre, PhD student in Philosophy and Bioethics, on being awarded a Greenwall Foundation Summer Internship! In this role Andy will be conducting background research to support bioethics grant reviews, performing literature reviews on bioethics topics for research summaries, and generally supporting the Foundation’s operations. He will be with the Greenwall Foundation through the summer.

From our last post, Allison Bajada presented the piece "And Doctor Makes Three: A Push for Shared Decision Making in Adolescent Contraceptive Use" at the Saint Louis University Graduate Student Symposium last week and was awarded 2nd place in the Humanities category. Congratulations, Allison!

Allison Bajada (SLU HCE Ph.D. student) recently published a piece on shared-decision making in adolescent contraceptive use. Read it here:

https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/NACG3FXGURIGHUZDWIE6/full -14777509261445741

The article is about the public health exception which allows minors to access contraception confidentially in most states in the U.S. Allison argues that this prevents parents from fulfilling their roles as caretakers and moral guides, and she proposes a framework by which providers can evaluate parental attitude, capacity, and willingness to be involved in contraceptive decision-making so more families can be included in the process.

And doctor makes three: A push for shared decision-making in adolescent contraceptive use - Allison Bajada, 2026 Access to contraception constitutes one of the few exceptions to parental medical decision-making for minors. Despite inconsistencies in state law across the Un...

Congratulations to Dr. Kirsten Dempsey, who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation "From Device Paradigm to Spiritual Practice: Bodies, Pills and Fertility Awareness", with distinction! Her committee included Dr. Jeffrey Bishop (chair), Dr. Angela Franks and Dr. Erica Salter. Kirsten works as the Director of Ethics Integration for Ascension Health.

Congratulations to Dr. Jacob Harrison, who successfully defended his health care ethics doctoral dissertation "Human Genetic Engineering and Catholic Ethics: Beyond Moral Distinctions Toward Integral Human Development as a Framework for Ethical Evaluation" with distinction! His committee included Dr. Tobias Winright (chair), Dr. Jason Eberl, Dr. Jeffrey Bishop and Fr. Leo Almazan. Jacob works as the Chief Catholic Mission Officer for Intermountain Health.

Joint-PhD student in Theology and Health Care Ethics Jordan Bauer was recently featured in 'Catholic Health World' about a recent webinar he gave to the Catholic Health Association:

Hospice nurse: 'We do have a lot of work to do' in honoring the dignity of those with dementia Jordan Bauer says with patience and perspective caregivers can learn from patients in cognitive decline

Timothy Alabi (HCE PhD student) has recently published "Treatment Multiplicity in a Nigerian Psychiatric Hospital” in "Medical Anthropology." Congratulations! See below for a description of the piece:

This article examines the multiplicity of mental healthcare practices at Aro Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Abeokuta, Nigeria, drawing on Annemarie Mol's theory of multiple bodies and four interrelated ethnographic anecdotes to demonstrate how biomedical, sociocultural, and spiritual dimensions intersect in treatment. It introduces the concepts of 'formal' and 'informal' care — both embedded within the hospital's multidisciplinary approach — to show how mental illness is understood as damage to personhood across biological, relational, and spiritual dimensions, with formal practices such as psychotropic medication and occupational therapy complemented by informal interventions including spiritual counselling and moral rehabilitation, together reflecting the Yoruba ontology of health. While aligned with global frameworks emphasizing holistic recovery, these practices are distinctly adapted to the local socio-cultural context, and comparative engagement with ethnographic studies elsewhere underscores both the universal relevance of culturally integrated healthcare and the unique adaptations that emerge in resource-constrained settings. Ultimately, the study contributes to global mental health discourse by advocating for culturally resonant recovery models that address the multifaceted nature of mental illness.