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Stephen Lammers, Manson Professor of the English Bible, will present a brown bag discussion entitled “Terri Schiavo Two Years Later: Have We Learned Anything?” noon Friday, March 2 in Interfaith Chapel, Hogg Hall.
Schiavo was a brain damaged patient, who spent 15 years institutionalized with a diagnosis of a persistent vegetative state. The seven-year court battle between her husband and her parents concerning continuing life-prolonging measures became the center of political and legal controversy. Her feeding tube was eventually removed and she died March 31, 2005.
Lammers’ lecture will encourage students to consider both sides of the Schiavo argument. He will explore each position, discussing extraordinary means and investigating the different narratives of the case.
“I hope students learn how difficult these cases are. Simple judgments of right and wrong do not capture the complexity of these cases, and we set ourselves up for them because of our unwillingness to confront the fact that we are mortal,” says Lammers. “It is important to have these types of opportunities outside of a classroom to both exchange ideas and listen while others exchange them in a less coercive environment than the classroom.”
Lammers is coeditor of On Moral Medicine, an award-winning book in medical ethics, and Theological Voices in Medical Ethics. He is a past recipient of the Carl R. and Ingeborg Beidleman Research Award, which recognizes excellence in applied research or scholarship. He is ethics consultant for Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network, working with residents and medical students, and a member of the hospital’s Institutional Review Board, Institutional Animal Use and Care Committee, and Ethics Committee.