Dignity with Bryan Pilkington

Bioethics in the Margins

In our final episode of season 2, we welcome Bryan Pilkington (@bcpethics) A,ssociate Professor in the School of Health and Medical Sciences, Adjunct Associate Professor in the College of Nursing, and Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Philosophy at Seton Hall University. He is also Professor at the Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine. His research focuses on questions in bioethics, where he is especially interested in questions of conscience, moral responsibility, and the practices of the health professions, and in moral and political philosophy, where he is especially interested in the concept of dignity and in moral disagreement. He lectures on practical ethical challenges in healthcare and teaches courses in normative and applied ethics. We enjoyed listening to his thoughts on the role of dignity in framing a wide range critical moral issues of our time. Professor Pilkington has a chapter on Teaching Dignity in the Health Professions (https://tinyurl.com/2p96dtxe) and has recently written about ethical issues during the COVID pandemic (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/766298) and the importance of bioethics advocacy in the treatment of individuals detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (https://www.thehastingscenter.org/detention-dignity-and-a-call-for-bioethics-advocacy/). Also mentioned in this episode are Ruth Macklin's criticism of the use of the concept of dignity in bioethics (https://www.bmj.com/content/327/7429/1419), the work of John Evans (https://johnhevans.ucsd.edu/research/what-is-bioethics/) and the documentary The Belly of the Beast on illegal sterilizations in California women's prisons (https://www.bellyofthebeastfilm.com/).