Ethics at the Intersection: Discussing End of Life Choices with American Indian and Alaska Native Patients

On Friday, Nov. 15, the University of Minnesota Center for Bioethics will host a free webinar entitled “Ethics at the Intersection: Discussing End of Life Choices with American Indian and Alaska Native Patients (AI/AN).”

UND School of Medicine & Health Sciences students, staff, and faculty are invited to attend the webinar, which begins at noon on Nov. 15, via the registration acquired by the School’s Indians Into Medicine (INMED) program.

Commonly, members of AI/AN communities hold cultural beliefs and practices about their bodies at the end of their lives that differ from the beliefs and practices of majority U.S. culture. Because of hundreds of years of harmful U.S. treatment directed at them, many AI/AN people are less likely to share their wishes for end of life care and planning with physicians and other healthcare providers. Without their engagement in end of life planning, AI/AN people would not be receiving ethical clinical care.

At the session, lead speaker Mary J. Owen, MD, a member of the Auk Kwaan Tribe of the Tlingit people, will discuss end of life choices involving American Indian and Alaska Native Patients. Based at the Center of American Indian Resources in Duluth, Minn., Owen is the immediate past-president of the Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP). As AAIP president, Owen created two national programs to support Native American students: the Indigenous Health Education and Resource Task Force (IHEART) and the Indigenous Health Educators Alliance (IHEAL). IHEART aims to create regional networks of support networks for Native students in grades K-post-graduate education. Likewise, IHEAL aims to mimic the national standards for Indigenous medical education that exist in Australia and New Zealand.

INMED will be screening the webinar in SMHS Room E251, or you can join the webinar using your own devices here.

After this webinar, attendees will be able to:

• Examine the principles of clinical ethics from the perspective of American Indians and Alaska Natives.
• Recognize that applying clinical ethics to end of life care begins long before discussions on advance care planning.
• Identify approaches to discussing advance care planning with American Indian and Alaska Native patients.

Everyone is welcome to attend!