wfn.org | April teleconference targets life decisions

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Dec. 6, 1999 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-71B{654}

NEW YORK (UMNS) -- A satellite teleconference, set for April 25, will
explore "beginning of life" decisions in the context of recent medical
advances and new scientific technology.

The event, "Does God Care How We Make Babies? Ethical Concerns about
Reproductive Choices, Cloning and Abortion," will air from 11:30 a.m. to 4
p.m. Eastern time. United Methodist Communications and the Iliff School of
Theology are sponsoring the teleconference, in cooperation with the Women's
Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, and the United
Methodist Publishing House.

Shirley Struchen, teleconference producer, said the focus would be on "some
critical ethical issues that the church as a whole is interested in
discussing." Among the issues that panelists and viewers will explore are:
·	Implications of sperm donation, egg donation and in vitro
fertilization:
·	Concerns about cloning and creating designer children; and
·	Dilemmas related to abortion as a moral choice.

Two of the panelists - Sally B. Geis and Donald E. Messer - have written a
book on these concerns called The Befuddled Stork: Helping Persons of Faith
Debate Beginning-of-Life Issues." The book will be published in February.

Geis and Messer also are co-authors of Caught in the Crossfire: Helping
Christians Debate Homosexuality and How Shall We Die? Helping Christians
Debate Assisted Suicide. Geis was founding director of the Iliff Institute
for Lay and Clergy Education and currently is an associate clinical
professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado Health Sciences
Center. Messer has been president and Henry White Warren Professor of
Practical Theology at Iliff since 1981.

Other participants will be Fredrick R. Abrams, M.D., Garlinda Burton, Sidney
Callahan, the Rev. Ronald Cole-Turner, Marilyn E. Coors, Ruth L. Fuller,
M.D., the Rev. Rebekah L. Miles and the Rev. J. Philip Wogaman.

Abrams is director of the Clinical Ethics Consultation Group and associate
clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of
Colorado Health Sciences Center. He also is associate medical director for
the Colorado Foundation for Medical Care. He founded the Center for Applied
Biomedical Ethics at Rose Medical Center in Denver and is past chairman of
the National Ethics Committee of the American College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists.

Burton, who will serve as moderator, is editor of Interpreter magazine, the
United Methodist program journal, and a former news director for United
Methodist News Service. The United Methodist Association of Communicators
named her Communicator of the Year in 1995.

Callahan is the author of nine books and has written for a variety of
publications, including The New Republic, Psychology Today and the Los
Angeles Times. She has served as a columnist for Health Progress, the
official journal of the Catholic Health Association of the United States,
and for Commonweal Magazine.

Cole-Turner is the H. Parker Sharp Professor of Theology and Ethics at
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and an ordained United Church of Christ
minister. He has written numerous books and papers on religion and science,
including Human Cloning: Religious Responses, and leads a UCC task force on
genetic engineering.

Coors is a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Colorado Health Sciences
Center in the Department of Ethnics and Human Genetics. The Roman Catholic
laywoman serves on the Denver Children's Hospital ethics committee and the
boards of Regis University and the Seeds of Hope Charitable Trust.

Fuller is an associate professor of psychiatry at the Health Sciences Center
and previously was in private practice in Harlem. She has consulted with the
Sickle Cell Center at Children's Hospitals and the Child Protection Team at
University Hospital in Denver. A Presbyterian elder, her published work has
focused on women and children in cross-cultural and minority settings.

Miles, an associate professor of ethics at Perkins School of Theology at
Southern Methodist University, is a member of the United Methodist Church's
Little Rock Annual Conference. She was a member of the United Methodist
Genetic Science Task Force and is the author of The Pastor as Moral Guide
and Wesley and the Quadrilateral.

Wogaman served as professor Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary
from 1966 to 1992. Since then, he has been senior pastor at Foundry United
Methodist Church in Washington. His 15 published books include Christian
Ethics: A Historical Introduction and Christian Moral Judgment.

The teleconference will include four on-air segments with panel
presentations and video and local site discussions with interactive
questions by phone and fax. The target audience includes religious leaders
and members of their faith communities; counselors; chaplains; and medical,
health care and social service professionals. Continuing education credit is
an available option.

For more information about the teleconference or about hosting a downlink
site, call (212) 870-3802 or send an e-mail to umtc@interport.net.
Information also is available on the Internet at www.umc.org/umtc/choices.
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