2015 Annual Conference

This is a past event

Law, Religion, and Health in America

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And check out many of the speakers’ slide presentations below!

Conference Description

Religion and medicine have historically gone hand in hand, but increasingly have come into conflict in the U.S. as health care has become both more secular and more heavily regulated. Law has a dual role here, simultaneously generating conflict between religion and health care, for example through new coverage mandates or legally permissible medical interventions that violate religious norms, while also acting as a tool for religious accommodation and protection of conscience.

This conference identified the various ways in which law intersects with religion and health care in the United States, examined the role of law in creating or mediating conflict between religion and health care, and explored potential legal solutions to allow religion and health care to simultaneously flourish in a culturally diverse nation.

Agenda

Note: All keynote, plenary, and panel sessions included time for Q & A.

Thursday, May 7: Pre-conference session: After Hobby Lobby: What Is Caesar’s What Is God’s?

As prelude to “Law, Religion, and Health in America,” the pre-conference session examined the role of religion in the American public sphere. Our expert panel discussed the nature of conscience and conscientious objection, religious freedom, and religious accommodation from philosophical, theological, historical, legal, and political perspectives.

WATCH the pre-conference session online!

4:00 – 6:00pm: Panel Discussion

5:20 – 5:30pm: Remarks from Dean Minow

5:30 – 6:00pm: Audience Q & A

6:00 – 7:00pm: Reception

This event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited. Register online!

Co-sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center and the Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr. Initiative on Religious Freedom and Its Implications at the Center for American Political Studies at Harvard University.

Friday, May 8

8:00 – 8:30am: Registration

8:30 – 8:35am: Welcome

8:35 – 9:25am: Plenary Address

  • Douglas Laycock, University of Virginia School of Law – Religious Liberty, Health Care, and the Culture Wars

​9:25 – 10:10am: Panel 1, Opening the Conversation: Testing the Scope of Legal Protections for Religion in the Health Care Context

10:10 – 10:25am: Break

10:25 – 11:30am: Panel 2, Law, Religion, and Health Care Institutions

11:30am – 12:15pm: Panel 3, Professional Responsibilities, Religion, and Health Care

​12:15 – 1:00pm: Lunch

​1:00 – 2:25pm: Panel 4, The Impact of Religious Objections on the Health and Health Care of Others

​2:25 – 2:40pm: Break

2:40 – 3:45pm: Panel 5, A Case Study – Religious Beliefs and the Health of the LGBT Community

​3:45 – 5:15pm: Panel 6, Accounting for and Accommodating Patients’ Religious Beliefs

​Saturday, May 9

8:30 – 9:00am: Registration

9:00 – 9:05am: Welcome

9:05 – 10:10am: Panel 7, Religious Reasons in the Context of Reproductive Health Care

​10:10 – 10:55am: Panel 8, Law, Religion, and Health Insurance

​10:55 – 11:10am: Break

11:10am – 12:40pm: Plenary Session, The Contraceptives Coverage Mandate Litigation

12:40 – 1:30pm, Lunch

1:30 – 2:50pm, Panel 9, When Religion Intersects with Mental, Public, and Environmental Health

​2:50 – 3:00pm: Closing Remarks

Learn More!

Slide Presentations

Cosponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center for Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School and the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School, with support from the Oswald DeN. Cammann Fund.