Research Ethics & Ethical, Legal & Social Issues
May 7, 2026 | noon - 1:00 pm | 3702 Scaife Hall
Sausages and Salmonella: Two Case Studies in the Ethics of Academic Integrity and Publishing
Daniel E. Hall, MD, MDiv, MHSc, Professor of Surgery, Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Department of Surgery, School of Medicine
We live at a time when trust in “science” (or perhaps more precisely the institutions engaged in scientific research) has reached new lows—and not entirely without cause. Those engaged in scientific research have a duty to act in ways that preserve the trust that remains while rebuilding what has been squandered. Dr. Hall will share two recent case studies that raise challenging prudential questions on how to manage and preserve research integrity in publishing. The first case involves a publication that is not frankly fraudulent, but comes close to the threshold of plagiarism with obvious methodological errors that raise significant safety concerns for clinical practice. The second case involves a circumstance when concerns about replication of findings emerged after passing peer review: how should the investigators act on that knowledge? After outlining the material facts of each case, Dr. Hall will facilitate a group discussion aimed at discerning prudent responses to seek remediation of errors and rebuild trust.
Sponsored by the Institute for Bioethics
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May 18, 2026 | noon - 1:00 pm | Online online and in-person in the 4th floor conference room of UPMC Mercy Pavillion (1622 Locust Street, Pittsburgh, PA 15219)
Research Participants as Subjects and as Agents: Lessons from Neuro Research for Research Ethics
Alex John London, PhD, K&L Gates Professor of Ethics and Computational Technologies, Carnegie Mellon University
What is the ethical status of being a research participant? Pharmaceutical studies tend to objectify them as subjects, as passive sources of data. Neuroprosthetic research, however, asks them to exercise agency to make fundamental contributions to the research process. Dr. London will examine different research participation models and their implications for research ethics across different research contexts.
Sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh’s Research Ethics Consultation Service (RECS) that serves the entire research ecosystem at Pitt: scholars, researchers and members of research teams, as well as research oversight committee members. RECS consultants help researchers in all disciplines think through the ethical and conceptual questions that arise in their research. For more information or to request a consultation, visit https://www.research.pitt.edu/RECS.
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June 22 - 24, 2026 | Chapel Hill, NC, and online
7th Annual ELSI Congress
The ELSI Congress brings together scholars who are dedicated to understanding and shaping the impact of genomic science on society, and to share research, exchange ideas, and influence the future of the field. Conference submissions are accepted until February 16. Registration opens March 9.
Bioethics, Health Humanities, Health Policy & Clinical Ethics
May 12, 2026 | 8:00 - 9:00 am | Online
Everyone Has a Story
Jessica Nutik Zitter, MD, MPH, formerly Critical and Palliative Care Medicine, Highland Hospital, Oakland, California
Non-judgmental care is part of the essential contract between doctor and patient. Yet, most providers aren’t seeing the patient’s full story, with serious consequences—patients feeling uncared for and providers burning out. Through her decade-long friendship with Chaplain Betty Clark, the dynamic, 80-year old chaplain on Highland Hospital’s Palliative Care team, Dr. Zitter came to view the issue of implicit bias with new eyes. This unlikely duo discovered that by breaking down the professional silos that kept them apart, they could provide a kind of care that was truly healing, not just for the patient, but for themselves as well. With warmth, vulnerability, and humor, Dr. Zitter shares her rising awareness of the bias she and colleagues unconsciously bring to the bedside. In this powerful and timely presentation, she takes the audience behind the scenes of her unusual relationship with Chaplain Clark, and the film she made to document it.
Continuing medical education credit will be available for those in attendance.
Co-sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies, Jewish Studies Program, Palliative and Supportive Institute, and Institute of Bioethics
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June 24, 2026 |8:00 - 9:00 am | Parkvale Building, Suite 300, Room 305, and online via Teams
Palliative Care: Working in the Gray
Theresa Brown, RN, PhD, Author of Healing: When a Nurse Becomes a Patient; The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients' Lives; and Critical Care: A New Nurse Faces Death, Life, and Everything in Between
Palliative care offers relief, an underrated treatment when curative options are no longer available to patients or will do more harm than good. The problem is, “curative options,” “harm,” and “good” are often in the eye of the beholder, or the physician, when patients with serious illness are unable to get significantly better, but their lives and sometimes function can be maintained with health care interventions. This talk will explore the gray areas of palliative care using clinical examples from the speaker’s work as an oncology and hospice nurse, and research for her next book, 4 Nurses. A key theme will be the role of hope in the care of serious illness. What counts as hope when a patient is dying? Is false hope better than no hope at all, or is that a false dichotomy?
Join via Teams (Passcode: PH75Ps9u)
Co-sponsored by the Institute for Bioethics and Department of Medicine Section on Palliative Care and Medical Ethics
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November 12 - 14, 2026 | In-person in the Baron-Forness Library at PennWest University in Edinboro, PA
2nd Biennial Conference on Global Bioethics
Sponsored by Duquesne University’s Center for Global Health Ethics and PennWest University’s James F. Drane Bioethics Institute
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March 4 - 7, 2027 | In-person at Wyndham Grand Pittsburgh Downtown (600 Commonwealth Place, Pittsburgh, PA, 15222)
36th Annual Conference of the Association of Practical and Professional Ethics
Sponsored by Pitt Research, this virtual exhibition demonstrates Pitt’s creativity and leadership in public communication of science and technology. With a Pitt Seed grant and science & technology studies scholar Hannah Starr Rogers, curator and science communication expert Elizabeth Pitts (Department of English) created the exhibit of ten artists/artist groups to inquire: What do we want from biotechnologies? Who is biotechnology for? Who decides?
In 2020, Pitt’s Center for Bioethics & Health Law mounted a virtual exhibition of work by Norman Klenicki. A self-taught artist and son of Auschwitz survivors, Klenicki uses his canvases to memorialize Holocaust victims and to channel the energy and emotions he experiences as a person with bipolar disorder. The exhibition is employed in history and Jewish studies courses, as well as the health humanities. With City of Asylum, the Center hosted events exploring connections between music and mental health, and between Klenicki’s visual art and the work of jazz musicians Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus. Historian and exhibit curator Bridget Keown (Gender, Sexuality , and Women’s Studies Program) leads a virtual gallery tour.
