Do you remember Christmases as a kid? Some of us have cheerful memories; for some, the memories are painful. But either way, most of us have come to associate the Christmas season and the end of the year with a reflective attitude about the past year. But it’s also good to recall that Advent is a time of joyful, hopeful expectancy! And we at the CBC find ourselves in both these states of mind: reflective and expectant all at once, and thankful all the way through. There’s no denying that without the consistent care and generosity of our supporters, the CBC wouldn’t have accomplished so much. Indeed, it has been another very full year, and we’re looking forward, with great expectancy, to opportunities that we’ve never had.

We are expecting to hit the beginning of 2013 with renewed resolve, and I have a schedule that speaks for it! In January, I’ll speak twice in Washington, D.C. for the annual Students for Life Conference and the Cardinal O’Connor Conference at Georgetown. In February, I’ll show Eggsploitation and speak at Yale Law School; and we’re firming up dates at other major universities. Check our website often for showings in your area, or contact us if you’d like to host one.

And as we’ve been hinting, we’re about to dive into production on our fourth documentary film—this one a hard, fair look at the international surrogacy industry. We’ve already got interviews scheduled with surrogates, specialists, and advocates on all sides. But we need to close a major funding gap to get our production team to India, where some of the worst offenses occur through the black market exploitation of young women, carrying children for rich Western families. Would you help us make their beautiful voices heard as well?

This year saw the launch of the CBC’s Paul Ramsey Institute—which exists to reach into the academic and professional world of bioethics, and to reach out to popular culture, equipping them with all-important resources that work out in deeply practical consequences in our world. The Paul Ramsey Institute’s first activities have been to build bridges between senior scholars and younger, up-and-coming students and professors who are already beginning to carry on a tradition of human dignity in bioethics. We’ve spent three meetings looking back into the history of bioethics—reading Ramsey himself, Hans Jonas, and Leon Kass—seeking to learn well from those who pioneered the field, upholding the sacred in human life; upholding human dignity.

And on that note, we recently announced the recipient of the 2013 Paul Ramsey Award for Excellence in Bioethics! We will honor Dr. David Solomon, Director Emeritus of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Culture and Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. The award ceremony in his honor will be held on April 13, 2013 in Diablo, CA, featuring a keynote by Jonah Goldberg. Please plan to join us.

Bioethics is about human life. Everyday human life. Thanks for partnering with us in 2012. And please remember us in your year-end giving.

Christmas blessings,

Jennifer Lahl
President
The Center for Bioethics and Culture

Your generous and timely gift is tax deductible.

 

Author Profile

Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, CBC Founder
Jennifer Lahl, MA, BSN, RN, is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Lahl couples her 25 years of experience as a pediatric critical care nurse, a hospital administrator, and a senior-level nursing manager with a deep passion to speak for those who have no voice. Lahl’s writings have appeared in various publications including Cambridge University Press, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Dallas Morning News, and the American Journal of Bioethics. As a field expert, she is routinely interviewed on radio and television including ABC, CBS, PBS, and NPR. She is also called upon to speak alongside lawmakers and members of the scientific community, even being invited to speak to members of the European Parliament in Brussels to address issues of egg trafficking; she has three times addressed the United Nations during the Commission on the Status of Women on egg and womb trafficking.