Eugene Bereza
eugene.bereza [at] mcgill.ca (Eugene Bereza, MD)
Associate Professor, Director, MUHC Centre for Applied Ethics
Dr. Eugene Bereza is a family physician with a background in literature, music therapy, palliative care and bioethics. He studied medicine and completed his residency at McGill University before pursuing a post-doctoral fellowship at the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. He is actively engaged in academic medical ethics, clinical ethics, research ethics and health policy development across the spectrum of care in Quebec through his work at the CIUSSS du Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, the McGill University Health Centre, the Montreal Neurological Institute, as well as many provincial and national, professional organizations.
As Associate Professor of Bioethics and former Director of the Biomedical Ethics Unit at McGill’s Faculty of Medicine, he teaches graduate seminars in bioethics to students in medicine, law, philosophy, and religious studies and supervises their research. He also teaches ethics to medical students, medical residents, medical faculty, as well as allied health professionals (nursing, social work, pastoral care, etc.) in an inter-disciplinary context. His main area of interest has always been end-of-life care, with a special emphasis on palliative care and euthanasia, especially in Quebec’s multicultural context.
Dr. Bereza is currently Director of the newly created MUHC Centre for Applied Ethics, where he has instituted an innovative program for an integrated, multi-disciplinary, professional approach to applied ethics.
Teaching:
In addition to teaching medical ethics at the medical school, Dr Bereza teaches the Bioethics Practicum course in the Bioethics Master's Program, one of the two core courses in that program. That course involves both classroom teaching and the placement and supervision of students in the McGill affiliated health care institutions. In that setting, students are familiarized with how hospitals and health care teams work, the concerns of patients, the ethical dilemmas which arise and the potential contribution of clinical ethics in helping to resolve them. The course also provides academic and practical exposure to research ethics and health policy development.
In the Department of Family Medicine, Dr Bereza is responsible for the Faculty Development Program in Bioethics. He also teaches seminars in research ethics in the Master’s program in Family Medicine.
Selected publications:
Bereza, E., "An Approach to Ethical Issues", Chapter 14, Palliative Medicine: A case-based manual, eds. Oneschuk, Hagen MacDonald, Oxford, 2012.
Bereza E., "Ethics and politics of dying", Canadian Family Physician 1994; 40:1075-1079.
Bereza E., "Éthique et santé mentale: les plus vulnérables sont-ils toujours sacrifiés?", Revue Canadienne de Santé Mentale Communautaire, 1998;17(2).
Burgess M., Bereza E., Campion B. et al., "Feeder Disciplines: the Education and Training of Health Care Consultants", in, F.E. Baylis (ed.), The Health Care Ethics Consultant, Humana Press, Totowa N.J., 1994, 63-108.
Freedman B., Weijer C., Bereza E., "Nota Bene: case notes and charting of bioethical case consultations", HEC Forum 1993; 5(3):176-195.
Bereza E., "The private and public deaths of Sue Rodriguez", McGill Law Journal 1994;39:719-724.
Bereza, E., "Truth telling and family medicine", Chapter no. 16.3, Oxford Textbook of Primary Medical Care, eds. Jones, Britten, Culpepper, Gass, Grol, Mant and Silagy, 2004.