“Medical Ethics: An Important Update” presented by Fr. Joseph Tham, LC, and Prof. Alberto García September 13, 2011

The University of St. Thomas Theology Department and the Chi Rho Theology Club are presenting “Medical Ethics: An Important Update” at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 13 in Cullen Hall, 4001 Mt. Vernon. Fr. Joseph Tham of the Legionaries of Christ will speak on “Why IVF is Wrong” and Prof. Alberto García, JD, will address “The Human Cloning Debate: Revival in the United Nations.”
Fr. Tham was born in Hong Kong and immigrated to Canada at the age of fifteen. At the University of Toronto, he majored in Mathematical Sciences and then graduated from Medical School. After working as a family physician for several years, he entered the seminary of the Legionaries of Christ and was ordained a priest in 2004. As a part of this preparation he obtained degrees in philosophy and theology at Rome’s Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University, where he also completed his post-graduate studies in bioethics. Recently, he successfully defended his doctoral dissertation on “The Secularization of Bioethics—A Critical History” under the direction of Dr. Edmund Pellegrino, former Chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics. He presently teaches bioethics at Regina Apostolorum. He is the author of The Missing Cornerstone (Hamden 2004) and The Secularization of Bioethics (Rome 2007).
Prof. García is the director of the recently formed United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chair in Bioethics and Human Rights. He earned a doctorate in law from Complutense University in Madrid. Presently, he is Professor of Philosophy of Law and International Law at the School of Bioethics of Athenaeum Pontificium at the Regina Apostolorum in Rome. He is also a researcher of the Human Rights Institute at Complutense University. For five years he has been member of the Steering Committee of Bioethics in the Council of Europe and in 2005 he was been honored with the National Prize of the Spanish Royal Academy of Doctors in the field of legal and social sciences.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information about the event, contact Sr. Madeline Grace, CVI at 713-525-3529.