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Further information: Contact John McAndrew
Public Relations Office, (570) 208-5958

September 24, 2018 - “Being There: What Contemporary Health Care Owes Persons at the End of Life” will be the topic of the annual Feast of St. Francis Lecture to be held at 7 p.m. Monday, October 15, in the Burke Auditorium of the McGowan School of Business at King’s College.

The speaker for the free public lecture will be Sister Patricia Talone, R,S,M., past vice president of Mission Services for the Catholic Health Association.  Talone will discuss the contradiction between the belief that America has the best health care system in the world and a declining average life expectancy.  She will focus on reports of terminal patients and their families that end-of-life care often leads to increased confusion, pain and suffering and will discuss the Catholic Church’s ethical and pastoral approaches to the subject. 

The author of the book “Feeding the Dying: Religion and End of Life Decisions,” Sister Talone will compare secular notions of death with the teachings of St. Francis of Assisi. The lecture is sponsored by the McGowan Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility at King’s.

Sister Talone also served as vice president for mission services and ethicist for Unity Health, St. Louis, a subsidiary of the Sisters of Mercy Health System, St. Louis. She serves on the board of the Mid-America Transplant Services and served for more than 10 years on the board of the National Catholic AIDS Network.   She earned a bachelor's degree from Gwynedd-Mercy College, a master's degree from St. Charles Seminary, Philadelphia, and a doctorate in theological ethics from Marquette University. She spent one semester as a visiting fellow at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown University.

The McGowan School of Business is located at the corner of N. River and W. Union streets in Wilkes-Barre.  Free parking will be available in on-campus lots.  For further information, contact Dr. Bernard Prusak, director, McGowan Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility, at (570)208-5900, ext. 5689.

Sister Patricia Talone, R,S,M.