The 33rd Annual Florida Bioethics Conference: Debates, Decisions, Solutions
Friday, May 9, 2025
Session 1 | Session 2 | Session 3
About the FBN
Founded 33 years ago, the Florida Bioethics Network is one of the oldest and largest bioethics networks in the country. It is committed to education and to identifying practical solutions to daily challenges faced by Florida hospitals, hospices, and nursing homes. For more information visit https://fbn.miami.edu/index.html or email fbn@med.miami.edu.
1:10 PM | Session 1, Carlos McDonald: State of the Art in Service and Practice: Guardianship in Florida
Handout
From its Common Law roots to 21st Century life-prolonging technologies, guardianship aims to help protect the rights of extremely vulnerable people. The profession’s history is an example of applied ethics in the service of that population and the profession that represents and supports its members.
2:10 PM | Session 2, Drs. Amanda Alladin, Jeffrey Brosco, Ron Ford, and Eileen Johson: The South Florida Pediatric Bioethics Consortium
Slides
The South Florida Pediatrics Bioethics Consortium was informally fledged in 2007 and has evolved into an inter-institutional collaboration among several children’s hospitals in the largest metropolitan area in the nation’s third-largest state. There is, apparently, nothing like it in the world. Presenters from Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital, Jack Nicklaus Children and the University of Miami / Jackson Health System’s Holtz Children’s Hospital will describe the consortium’s accomplishments and challenges. Examples of accomplishments include shared institutional policies, inter-institutional case consults and joint educational and professional development events.
3:10 PM | Session 3, Dr. Kenneth Goodman: Bioethics in Sad and Peculiar Times: Reflections on the Florida Bioethics Network and its Future
This 33rd annual Florida Ethics: Debates, Decisions, Solutions conference occurs during one of the most extraordinary times in U.S. history. Indeed, the current administration’s attacks on the sciences, including health science, and on academia have apparently mutated to the point where “ethics” is defamed in conjunction with diversity, equity and inclusion. Here, the FBN director will reflect on the FBN’s history since its founding in 1991 by Ray Moseley of the University of Florida, identify current challenges and offer thoughts about the most promising future directions for the FBN and bioethics in general.
BIOS
Amanda Alladin, MD
Chair, Pediatric Bioethics Committee, Jackson Memorial Hospital Chair, South Florida Pediatric Bioethics Consortium
Dr. Alladin is Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the University of Miami and Chair of the University of Miami/Holtz Children’s Hospital Pediatric Bioethics Committee at Jackson Memorial Hospital. She is an attending physician in the Division of Pediatric Critical Care and is board certified by the American Board of Pediatrics in General Pediatrics, Pediatric Critical Care, and Hospice and Palliative Medicine. She will be completing her master’s degree in Bioethics and Health Policy at Loyola University Chicago this fall. Dr. Alladin is from Trinidad and Tobago and graduated from the University of The West Indies, Trinidad, in 2006. She was a former Chair and Vice Chair of the Pediatric Palliative Care Committee for the Society of Critical Care Medicine. She is currently the Chair for the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Hospice and Palliative Medicine’s Education Committee. Her research interests include pediatric palliative care education and pediatric delirium.
Jeffrey P. Brosco, MD, PhD
Director, Division of Services for Children with Special Health Needs, Maternal Child Health Bureau, U.S. Health Resources & Services Administration Director, Population Health Ethics; Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Dr. Brosco is a clinician-educator who contributes to science by translating evidence-based clinical and organizational practice into ethically optimized public policy. His broad areas of interest are the organization of health care services for children with special health care needs, the education of professionals in family-centered, interprofessional practice, and public policy regarding public health programs such as newborn screening. Since 2022 he has served as division director at the Division of Services for Children with Special Health Needs, part of the federal government’s Maternal Child Health Bureau (HRSA). Dr. Brosco leads a team tasked with ensuring that every child in the U.S. receive the medical care and family support they need to play, go to school, and grow up to be healthy and productive adults. In addition to his health policy work, Dr. Brosco continues to practice and teach general pediatrics and developmental-behavioral pediatrics. He was an Arsht Distinguished Ethics Faculty Fellow (2012-2015) and for a decade served as Chair of the Pediatric Bioethics Committee at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Kenneth W. Goodman, PhD
Director, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy Director, Florida Bioethics Network
Dr. Goodman has directed the UM Institute for Bioethics and Health Policy for more than 30 years. He chairs ethics committees at the University of Miami and Jackson Health Systems. His research has emphasized ethical issues in biomedical informatics and in public health.
Carlos McDonald
Executive Director, Guardianship Program of Dade County, Inc. President, Florida State Guardianship Association
Mr. McDonald has more than 35 years of senior management experience in both the private and public sectors. For the last 11 years, he has served as director of the state’s oldest and largest public guardianship. The Guardianship Program of Dade County represents nearly 1,600 adults annually and has a full-time staff of more than 65 employees. He previously served as the Executive Deputy of the Florida Attorney General’s Office during his 16 years in Tallahassee. He also serves as president of the Florida State Guardianship Association (FSGA). He is a member of and helped initiate State Attorney Katherine Rundle’s on-going Elderly Abuse and Exploitation Task Force. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Cava and County Commissioner Rene Garcia are its co-chairs. Mr. McDonald is the County Mayor’s designee on the County’s Building Better Communities Citizen’s Advisory Board, which reviews the on-going, $2.9 billion general obligation bond program for capital projects.
