Choose a life. Choose your life. Choose Life? Bioethical issues at the beginning, middle and end of life. (360G-Wellcome-080488_Z_06_Z)

Choose a Life. Choose Your Life. Choose Life? Bioethical Issues at the Beginning, Middle and End of Life The symposium will have three sessions, arranged around the bioethical issues at the beginning, middle and end of life. The first session will examine reproductive ethics issues and concerns about the use of embryos. The second, issues raised by genetic testing and the use and storage of genetic information. The final session will cover end-of-life and terminal care issues. Medicine focuses on the physiology of the body, but cannot give satisfactory answers to bioethical and metaphysical questions that arise as we make decisions about how to treat and how to live. Humanities deals with these questions, but does not always the have capacity to understand the practical and scientific issues involved in these decisions. The interdisciplinary field of Medial Humanities seeks to draw together researchers from the medical sciences and the humanities in a dialogue about how these questions can be answered in a more holistic, and hence more satisfactory way. Given the inherent divisions between the disciplines that fall under the heading 'medical humanities', researchers in these diverse fields often will not be fully aware of how relevant work done in other fields and from other perspectives. In many instances, researchers may be working in parallel with one another but rarely come into contact with one another. There is hence a need for communication between these disciplines, and particular the provision of forums that facilitate conversation in shared issues between members of these different fields. This gathering will broaden the dialogue and actively bring into the conversation these other fields - medical anthropology, history of medicine and theology. While there are many conferences that cover issues raised by embryo research, genetics and end-of-life decision-making, these are usually targeted at ethicists, clinicians and lawyers. This gathering is needed, as it will invite speakers from these other disciplines, to engage in discussion on these issues about life and life choices.