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Interview, Molecular Genetics, University of Toronto
Michael Szego, Clinical Ethicist, Centre for Clinical Ethics reflects on his journey from completing his PhD with Prof. Roderick McInnes to earning a Master of Health Science in Bioethics and launching his career that brings together clinical consultations, policy development, education, and research. Michael highlights eureka moments in his career trajectory, the power of PhD training, and the importance of following your heart in career planning.
Can you describe your current position as a Clinical Ethicist?
Clinical ethicists help clinicians, patients and their families identify, analyze and resolve ethical issues in medicine. Clinical consultations, policy development, education and research are the four main aspects of my job.
Clinical consultations are an interesting part of my job as I am brought into difficult clinical cases often involving disagreements among healthcare providers and/or patients and their families about what the right course of action should be. A classic example would be when there is a disagreement about whether life support should be withdrawn from a patient in the intensive care unit. I try and provide a structured approach and help work towards a resolution while keeping patient values/wishes at the forefront of the discussion. I value this part of my job as it marries the theoretical with the practical and gives me an opportunity to help patients/families make difficult decisions.
Read full story: http://www.moleculargenetics.utoronto.ca/alumni-spotlight/2015/7/29/dr-michael-szego
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Past Conferences
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Beyond Dreamcatchers: Native Spirituality Conference
Native dreamcatchers are popular with many people. (Those are the hoops with a web through the centre, decorated with feathers and beads.) They’re seen as a protective charm. But there’s more to them than that – and a lot more to native spirituality than most of us know.
Interview on CBC, All in a Weekend, Montreal, Canada
Read full story: http://www.cbc.ca/allinaweekend/religion/2014/01/25/beyond-dreamcatchers-native-spirituality-conference/
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Ethicist Details Principles that Guide Massive Genome Project
Michael Szego, Centre for Clinical Ethics at the University of Toronto and the Personal Genome Project ethicist, says the program is very clear they can not promise any kind of confidentiality or privacy in this project.
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What is Medical Ethics Consultation?
Giles Scofield, JD, MA, is a clinical ethicist at the Centre for Clinical Ethics in Toronto. In the selection below, Scofield argues that the scope and limits of ethics consultation is not well defined. Because ethics consultation has no clear boundaries, it is impossible to know when boundaries have been crossed, and whether such crossings are justified. Scofield also notes that, unlike other consultation services in the health care setting, ethics consultation lacks a credentialing process of any kind. Whereas ethics consultants typically are regarded as professionals, they lack all of the formal attributes traditionally associated with a profession, such as a code of ethics, standards of accreditation, and conditions of licensure. Scofield concludes that the field of ethics consultation is without any means of ensuring that its practitioners have expertise or perform in a competent manner.
