Ethics of End-of-Life Care

Contributions from the
Arts and Humanities

Sun. Feb 11 – Sat. Feb 17, 2024 / Rome, Italy
(or shortened version: Feb 14-17, 2024)

An intensive ethics seminar
organized in cooperation with the
Pontifical Academy for Life, Vatican City

Summary outline

Care for the dying and their loved ones is a most rewarding but also challenging endeavor. Such care can evoke complex moral questions that often defy standard methods of ethical analysis. In this seminar, we enter into dialogue with the arts and humanities to gain new insights about the human condition, find meaning in the final phase of life, and achieve a truly dignified death.

Approach

Whereas internationally renowned experts will introduce the themes, the core of this seminar will be a sustained discussion among all participants.  Conversations will extend from the classroom to the cultural excursions in the city of Rome and many shared meals. Participants are encouraged to prepare a short presentation to stimulate still more dialogue. Registration is limited to 20 persons.

Integration with the 2024 Conference of the Pontifical Academy for Life

During the second and third day of the seminar, participants will attend the annual conference of the Pontifical Academy for Life on “Human Meanings and Challenges”.  There will also be an opportunity to join in the Academy’s private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican. Detailed information about the speakers and presentations at this conference can be found here.

Participants can also elect to only attend the second half of the seminar, which starts after the conference of the Pontifical Academy on Wednesday afternoon Feb 14.

Submissions by participants

Each participant is invited and indeed encouraged to prepare a short presentation, to be given during the seminar. While this presentation may cover a completed ethics project, the primary purpose of these breakout sessions is to present a “work-in-progress” or even a project in the earliest planning phase. Graduate students whose master or doctoral thesis will include a normative component are especially encouraged to enroll.

Educational team

• Jos V.M. Welie, MA, MMedS, JD, PhD (Seminar Director). Founding President of the St. André International Center for Ethics and Integrity (France); Professor Emeritus of Medical Humanities at Creighton University (Omaha, USA)
• Carlos Centeno Gómez, MD, PhD, University of Navarra (Spain)
• Nunziata Comoretto, MD, PhD, LRS, Scietific Sention, bbbbbPontifical Academy for Life (Vatican City)
• Don Andrea Ciucci, Pontifical Academy for Life (Vatican City)
• Andrea De Santis, PhD, Professor of Philosophy and Dean, School of Philosophy, Ateneo Sant’Anselmo (Rome, Italy)
• William Sullivan, MD, PhD, Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. Chair in Bioethics, Georgetown University (Washington, DC, USA)
• Bernadette Tobin, PhD, Director of the Plunkett Centre for Ethics (Sydney, Australia).

Program

SUNDAY FEBR. 11: START OF SEMINAR   

MONDAY FEBR. 12: PAV CONFERENCE

TUESDAY FEBR. 13, 2024: PAV CONFERENCE (CONTINUED)

WEDNESDAY FEBR. 14: SEMINAR (CONTINUED)

THURSDAY FEBR. 15 : SEMINAR (CONTINUED)

FRIDAY FEBR. 16 : SEMINAR (CONTINUED)

SATURDAY FEBR. 18: SEMINAR (CONTINUED)

Language

The seminar is held in English. There will not be simultaneous language in other languages (except during the conference of the Pontifical Academy for Life). However, non-native speakers should not hesitate to enroll, as long as they have solid conversational competency in English. The members of the instructional team are either non-native speakers themselves, or have extensive experience working in other countries and conversing across language barriers. What matters is a willingness to engage in the discussions and not be worried about linguistic imperfections.

Certificate

Each educational program of the St André International Center for Ethics and Integrity is assessed by its Curriculum Committee, consisting of highly experienced educators and researchers from various of universities around the world. Participants will receive a Certificate of Completion, detailing the course description, contact hours completed, learning objectives, instructional modalities and other pertinent information.

Registration, fees and optional excursions

Attendance is limited to 20 participants. Registration for the seminar can be done via the online registration form. We will let you know within 72 hours if there still is availability.

The seminar fee schedule is as follows:

Full week (including PAV conference*) $ 1060 / € 970
Reduced student fee $ 950 / € 870
Second half of the week only (Wed-Sat) $ 950 / € 870
Reduced student fee $ 870 / € 800

* If you elect to attend the full week program, you do NOT need to register separately at the website of the Pontifical Academy for the Mon-Tue conference. Your registration info will be shared with the PAV.

The registration fee includes:

• Attendance of all academic sessions
• 3 lunches and 3 dinners
• Coffee/refreshment breaks during all seminar days
• 3 half days of excursions to various cultural sites in Rome.

The fee for accompanying persons is US$340 / €310 and includes all scheduled dinners, lunches and excursions.

Participants and accompanying persons can also sign-up for a guided exploration of the most famous Roman antiquities (Colosseum, Forum Romanum, Capitoline hill) on Wednesday mid-day. For accompanying persons two additional guided excursions will be available on Monday afternoon (Exploration on foot of the heart of Rome, including Piazza Navona and the Trevi fountain) and Tuesday afternoon (Christian Rome, including the San Clemente, Santa Maria Maggiore and Santa Suzanna).

Venue

Please note that the venue for the different program components will change frequently. The conference of the Pontifical Academy for Life will be at the Augustinianum Congress Center (Via Paolo VI, 25), immediately south of the Vatican square. The audience with Pope Francis will take place in the Vatican itself. The morning sessions of the seminar on Thursday through Saturday will most likely take place at a meeting center near the Cipro metro stop. But the late afternoon sessions may each take place at a different academic site in Rome (scheduling is still taking place). And of course we will be exploring parts of the city of Rome on various days.

We therefore recommend to look for lodging not too far from the entrance to the Vatican Museum (see the orange oval on map below), which tends to be a rather affordable area in Rome and you will be:

1. at walking distance from the site of the Pontifical Academy Conference;
2. at walking distance to a metro stop
3. at walking distance to the Piazza Risorgimento (where many bus lines stop)
4. and near the meeting center where we may end up having the morning plenary sessions (at a location one block from the Cipro metro stop),

For more suggestions about lodging and travel more generally, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Additional information

For all questions about this seminar, please use the contact button below.