Conscientious Practice as Salt and Light and Love (Lauris Kaldjian)

Dr Lauris Kaldjian’s presentation from our 2018 CMDA Canada National Conference focuses on the impact of moral pluralism on the practice of medicine and the particular impacts of pluralism in our approach to controversial procedures like euthanasia and on our view of conscience. Dr. Kaldjian challenges us to consider how we can be salt and light in this context. Dr. Lauris Kaldjian is Director of the Program in Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, where he is professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and holds the Richard M. Caplan Chair in Biomedical Ethics and Medical Humanities. He received his M.D. from the University of Michigan, an M.Div. and Ph.D. in Christian ethics from Yale University, and he completed his residency and fellowship training at Yale in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. His research interests have been directed toward end of life decision making, goals of care, disclosure of medical errors, ethics education, philosophical and religious beliefs in clinical decision making, and the integration of personal beliefs and professional ethics in clinical practice.