KIE Acting Director Dr. Daniel Sulmasy and Senior Research Scholar John Keown traveled to Georgetown University Qatar (GU-Q) for the conference “Christian and Muslim Perspectives on Palliative Care and End of Life.” The conference was organized by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life (Pontificia Academia Pro Vita) and GU-Q, with support from the World Innovation Summit for Health. Scholars Sulmasy and Keown are both appointed as Ordinary Members of the Pontifical Academy for Life. While at the conference, both served on panels addressing the ethics of palliative care.

KIE Senior Research Scholar John Keown and KIE Acting Director Daniel Sulmasy at Georgetown University Qatar in Doha.

Scholars Sulmasy and Keown were joined by Dr. G. Kevin Donovan, KIE Senior Clinical Scholar and Director of the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University Medical Center. Dr. Donovan delivered a keynote address discussing his experience as a clinician ethicist from the Christian tradition to contemplate the theme of palliative care.

The conference initiated a multidisciplinary dialogue on issues regarding the treatment of patients facing life threatening illness and death, particularly emphasizing opportunities and barriers to care in the Middle East. As a prime example of Georgetown’s traditions of caring for the whole person and encouraging interfaith dialogue, the conference helped the participants reach more common ground by identifying shared values between Georgetown’s Jesuit heritage and the Qatari cultural value of respect and care for the ill.

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