With Thanksgiving just passed, and Christmas and the New Year fast approaching, we here at the CBC are taking stock of 2018 and looking forward to 2019 and beyond. One thing we know without a doubt is that the work we do would be impossible without your generous and faithful support! We are a small but high-impact organization because of you. Please know how thankful every member of the CBC team is for your partnership with us and for your help in the successes over this past year (and years!).

The CBC is the only organization doing national and international work on a full range of third-party reproduction issues and the fertility industrial complex that is Big Fertility. We are where the rubber meets the road when it comes to taking on commercial, third-party reproduction and the wreckage it causes individuals, families, and cultures. We are driving a global conversation to prohibit commercial surrogacy in places where it is currently permitted, and to keep it prohibited in places where it is currently—and wisely—illegal.

Our Paul Ramsey Institute is unrivaled as a program to train and mentor the next generation of leaders in the field of bioethics. Our current cohort of Fellows, now in their second and final academic year with us, are truly exceptional. Several of our alums this year were involved in writing a special journal issue on the enduring importance of Paul Ramsey’s work. Dr. Patrick T. Smith of Duke University, who will receive the 2019 Paul Ramsey Award for Excellence in Bioethics (and who also had an article in that special journal issue), is yet another example of the caliber and character of people associated with our Paul Ramsey Institute.

We are reaching grassroots, thought leaders, gatekeepers, and the next generation. We have been highly effective on university campuses, in both national and international media, and in the halls of legislatures. Our award-winning films have sold around the world, educating many and having a life-affirming impact!

But without your help, we could not do any of this work.

I know you are pulled a thousand different ways this time of year. I know you have limited resources. But still I ask that you make the most generous contribution possible to this cause today. We simply must fight back against the multi-billion-dollar fertility industry that treats women like breeding animals and children like commodities. And we have to raise up the next generation of bioethics leaders.

In 2019, our work will not slow down. The needs are even greater with the release of our newest film, #BigFertility, which has just been named an Official Selection of the 2018 Silicon Valley International Film Festival! Already it has sold in more than a dozen countries and has been translated into Spanish, French, and Italian. We’ve had requests for translation into several more languages, each of which costs $500 to translate, subtitle, and upload for distribution.

I am counting on your end-of-year gift to help the CBC start 2019 with the full confidence that we have the resources on hand for what this next year has in store.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year from all of us at the CBC!

Jennifer

PS: This work is not possible without YOU! Your gift now helps to ensure that we can continue building on our past work and take full advantage of all the opportunities coming our way in 2019. Please send your most generous gift today, and/or consider partnering with us as a monthly supporter.

The Center for Bioethics and Culture is a non-profit 501(c)(3) public benefit educational organization. All gifts are tax-deductible.

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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.