Lectures on Suffering to be Presented at Holy Cross by Bioethics Pioneer and Noted Psychologist

WORCESTER, Mass. – Daniel Callahan, co-founder of the Hastings Center and a pioneer in bioethics, will give a presentation titled “Medical Progress and the Relief of Suffering: How Much Can We Afford?” on Tuesday, March 18 at 7:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library at the College of the Holy Cross. His wife, Sidney Callahan, author, lecturer, college professor, and licensed psychologist, will give a lecture on her latest book titled Created for Joy: A Christian View of Suffering (Crossroad Publishing Company, 2007) the same day at 4:30 p.m. in the Rehm Library. Both events, sponsored by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, are free and open to the public.

Both talks will deal with suffering; and its meaning for Christians and science's efforts to relieve it.

Often called the founder of the field of bioethics, Daniel Callahan co-founded the Hastings Center in 1969, an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit bioethics research institute, which explores fundamental and emerging questions in medicine, health care, and biotechnology. He served as director and president of the center, for its first 27 years and is currently the director of international programs.

Daniel Callahan is the author or editor of 39 books, including co-author with Angela Wasunna of Medicine and the Market: Equity vs. Choice (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006) and What Price Better Health? Hazards of the Research Imperative (University of California Press, 2003).

A Senior Fellow at Harvard Medical School and Yale University, he earned his Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University, his M.A. from Georgetown University and his B.A. from Yale. He holds honorary degrees from Oregon State University, the University of Colorado, Williams College, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Sidney Callahan is an author, lecturer, college professor, and licensed psychologist. From 2002-03, she held the Paul J. McKeever Chair of Moral Theology at St. John's University in Queens, N.Y. and from 1980-97 she was a professor of psychology at Mercy College. She received Ph.D. in social and personality psychology from the City University of New York, her M.A. in psychology from Sarah Lawrence College and her B.A. in English from Bryn Mawr College.

Sydney Callahan has written numerous articles, books, and columns devoted to religious, psychological, and ethical questions. She is author of In Good Conscience: Reason and Emotion in Moral Decision Making (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1991); With All Our Heart and Mind: The Spiritual Works of Mercy in a Psychological Age (New York: Crossroads/Continuum, 1988), winner of the Christopher Award, 1988; and Abortion: Understanding Differences, Co-edited with Daniel Callahan (New York: Plenum Press, 1984).

About The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture:

Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College's commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope.  The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.