Center Celebrates 25th Anniversary in Style
Record setting fundraiser, pain and palliative care chair announced
Myra Christopher's first day as the unpaid executive director for a new bioethics center was rather quiet.
On January 3, 1985 she brought a few items from home to her new office. She made sure the phone worked. She flipped through a book written by one of her favorite American philosophers, Dr. Seuss, entitled The Places That You Will Go. She remembered thinking about what this bioethics center would ultimately become.
Almost 25 years later, Myra has an answer. A quarter century marked by growth and accomplishment, and a celebration of that work witnessed by more than 700 people on May 7 at the Muehlebach Hotel in downtown Kansas City, Missouri. And in a down economy, it was announced the event raised a record $400,000 plus.
Quite a night. Quite a 25 years.
“The most important thing the Center has done over two and a half decades is to be prepared for the future,” Myra said. “We have proven that the model and methodology that we call ‘practical bioethics’ has value.”
Myra said the Center is well prepared to assist society with the ethical challenges of the future.
“I don’t believe that my work with the Center is quite complete,” she said. “It's quite unlikely, though, that I will stand before you for the Center’s 50th Anniversary. BUT. I know there will be one, and that the Center’s work will be even more important than it is today.”
Honorary chairs for the 2009 Annual Dinner were Ellen and Irv Hockaday and Laura and David Hall. The Board Liaison was Joan Berkley.
Links:
Foley Chair for Pain and Palliative Care
Center chairman of the board Jim Beck announced the establishment of a $3 million endowment to fund a new chair in pain and palliative care. The new chair - which will continue to raise the bar on pain education, research and policy development - is named after Kathleen M. Foley, MD, a revered neuro-oncologist and international leader in pain and palliative care.
Purdue Pharma provided a lead gift of $1.5 million, and efforts are under way to raise the balance of the endowment.
Link: News release, Center for Practical Bioethics Announces Creation of the Kathleen M. Foley Chair for Pain and Palliative Care, May 8
Remove Hot Button Issues from Public Discourse
Senator John Danforth concluded the evening with the Robert L. Biblo Lecture.
In his remarks, he suggested removing hot button social issues from the center of political combat. “Where public opinion is sharply divided, we could decide not to decide,” he says. “We could keep the issues open, at least for a time, and continue talking and put off the day when courts or legislatures pick winners and losers.”
Links:
- Audio Podcast, address by John C. Danforth, May 7, 2009, 25 minutes, 38 seconds
- Text of address by John C. Danforth, May 7, 2009(pdf document)
- Defusing Culture Wars, Practical Bioethics Blog, May 12
- On hot-button issues, a call for ‘watchful waiting’, As I See It, John C. Danforth, Kansas City Star, May 13
The annual dinner was followed by a bioethics symposium the next day. For more on the symposium click here.
