Field trip: the ASBH Annual Meeting in San Diego

Normally I don't do this sort of thing. When I am not off to the DR Congo, Malawi, South Africa, Burundi, Madagascar or some other far-flung place, I am pretty much parked on my perch in North Carolina. Travel within the United States over the last decade has been very limited, and travel to domestic bioethics conferences pretty much absent. When you are already jetlagged, and poisoned by (increasingly) small bags of salted peanuts, why drag your sorry self to Cleveland or Nashville?

This week marks an exception. The annual meeting of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities is being held in San Diego from October 21st-24th. My decision to go was not due to Glenn McGee's vigorous but somewhat unbalanced call last week for bioethicists to attend the event on the American Journal of Bioethics Blog. I had already signed on. And it is not due to the location, though I heard that it is sweet. For me, it is more about learning what practitioners of this odd activity in the United States are up to, think and care about, and believe others should think and care about. Connecting names and reputations with faces and fashion choices.

So, in the next few days, this outsider and first-timer will be posting reflections on the ASBH conference. How objective it will get depends on who mixes the cocktails.