We are falling right into the fall season here at the Center for Bioethics and Culture! We welcomed our ten new Paul Ramsey Fellows to the first meeting of their two-year fellowship, and boy are they an impressive group of young men and women. Our reading for this meeting was William May’s “The Physician’s Covenant: Images of the Healer in Medical Ethics.” The fellows read this important foundational book and spent the weekend in thoughtful discussion led by Paul Ramsey Scholars. I look forward to our time with them, and to see them grow in their knowledge of things of deep importance to us at the CBC.

My trip to South Dakota was a whirlwind road trip of the state!  I met with nearly a dozen state senators and representatives over three days and had a one-on-one meeting with the Governor’s General Counsel. I had hoped for a meeting with the Governor herself, but unfortunately that didn’t materialize. I also gave two talks to several hundred people, one in Sioux Falls and the other in Rapid City. Plus, we were in Pierre for the meeting at the Capitol! My hope is that there will be new legislation on surrogacy in South Dakota. I’ve been invited back to testify if there are hearings. They also want to screen #BigFertility in the Capitol.

From South Dakota I traveled to Arizona. The two talks I gave at Arizona State University for their “Program in Political History and Leadership” series were well-received and attended. I love speaking to university students. Their questions and interest in our work is very meaningful to us at the CBC.

Next, I will be traveling to Boise, Salt Lake City, and Washington D.C. where I will be speaking at the Heritage Foundation (watch the archived video here). From there, I travel to London to speak on surrogacy at the FiLiA Conference where feminists’ campaigners, activists, artists, academics and revolutionaries come together to fight against and speak out about injustices against women. We at the CBC believe that third party reproduction is one of the biggest injustices in modern medicine today.

illustrated mother with baby

We hope that you have had an opportunity to listen to our Venus Rising podcast and hope that you are enjoying the panel of colleagues that have shared their expertise with us. As one of our recent guests, Taina Bien-Aimé, stated on the show, “We are really really challenged in getting the public to understand that money is not consent, and also one cannot consent to one’s own exploitation under international law. Some days you feel very very hopeful because what we have now is a growing global movement…” It is our hope that this podcast will help educate and spread awareness of the dangers from third party reproduction. We need your help in this effort!

Today, your support is most needed to help us respond to the many invitations we receive to spread our message across the United States and beyond. Might you consider joining others as a monthly supporter? Monthly support helps us plan, but any gift is always put immediately to good use.

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