BDF Mission and Biographies
Bio: Life
Ethics: The discipline dealing with moral duty and obligation
Bioethics is just that - the ethics of our conduct toward each human life. Bioethics is a human rights issue because it impacts the life and death ethics affecting every member of the species homo sapiens. Bioethics Defense Fund promotes human rights from beginning to end. We put law in the service of life. Mission: Bioethics Defense Fund (BDF) is a public-interest law firm whose mission is to advocate for the human right to life via litigation, legislation and public education. Issues: BDF provides legal expertise and public education on the issues of healthcare rights of conscience, abortion and its impact on women, human cloning/destructive human embryo research, and end of life issues including physician-assisted suicide and healthcare rationing. Contact us for media interviews, legal consultation or educational speaking. Need a photo for a BDF Speaker? See the BDF Staff Photo Gallery. |
Nikolas T. Nikas
President and General Counsel
Nikolas T. Nikas is President and General Counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund. Nikas has directed national legal strategy on the issues of human cloning/embryonic stem cell research, abortion and end-of-life issues since 1992. His areas of expertise include legislative drafting, litigation and public education.
Nikas impacts legislative strategy by drafting life-protective model legislation on a host of issues, and by consulting with legislators and policy leaders in all 50 states and Congress. He also testifies in legislative committees on the constitutionality of bioethics legislation.
Nikas leads bioethics litigation efforts by providing strategic counsel to state attorneys general and by directly litigating federal court challenges to enacted legislation when appointed by state officials. Nikas has served as a special assistant attorney general for the state of Arizona in its partial-birth abortion litigation, and as special deputy Maricopa County attorney in the currently pending constitutional challenge to Arizona’s abortion clinic regulation law. He has also litigated ballot initiatives regarding human cloning and embryonic stem cell research, and healthcare rights of conscience.
In 2000 Nikas organized and participated in the oral argument preparation for Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg in the U.S. Supreme Court partial-birth abortion case, Carhart v. Stenberg, in which Nikas also filed an amicus curiae brief. Nikas consulted with members and legal staff of the President’s Council on Bioethics in Washington, D.C., and has testified before the U.S. Senate on abortion and First Amendment rights.
Nikas is a dynamic speaker, having lectured on the full range of bioethics topics at legal and medical conferences and leading law schools, including Stanford, Columbia, Notre Dame and dozens of others. He has lectured internationally on the issue of health care rights of conscience, including several addresses at the Rome conference of Matercare and the International Catholic Medical Association.
Before dedicating his law practice to bioethics issues, Nikas was associated with two of the largest firms in Arizona, focusing on civil litigation in Arizona federal and state courts.
Nikas received his B.A. (1979) in government and international relations, and his M.A. (1981) in political philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. He received his juris doctor, magna cum laude, in 1986 from Arizona State University College of Law, where he graduated in the top five percent of his class. He was awarded the Order of the Coif and served as an articles editor of the Arizona State Law Journal. Nikas lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife and their five children.
Dorinda C. Bordlee
Vice President, Senior Counsel
Dorinda C. Bordlee, Esq. is Vice President, Senior Counsel of Bioethics Defense Fund, a bioethics law and policy organization that advocates for human rights from beginning to end. She has dedicated her law practice to sanctity of life constitutional issues since 1994.
Dorinda's expertise is in the public policy realm, having drafted legislation and user friendly education pieces for dozens of States on the full range of bioethics issues including healthcare rights of conscience, abortion and its impact on women's health, human cloning, destructive human embryo research, and end-of-life issues such as physician-assisted suicide and healthcare rationing.
Dorinda also has wide-ranging litigation and appellate advocacy experience defending the constitutionality of life issue laws in U.S. federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. She has consulted with members and legal staff of the President's Council on Bioethics.
Dorinda is the author of a chapter on abortion alternatives in the 2004 book entitled The Cost of Choice, and she has published articles and opinion pieces on topics including authentic feminism, healthcare reform, and human cloning in national publications including National Review Online, the New York Times, and the Washington Times, and has appeared on CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, EWTN and C-Span. Her speaking engagements range from university and law schools to national and international legal and medical conferences, including the Rome conferences of Matercare and the International Catholic Medical Association.
Dorinda received her B.A. in Finance, summa cum laude (1987), and Juris Doctor (1990) from Loyola University, New Orleans. She lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband and their four children.
Tim Casey
Litigation Counsel
Monique Colon Toso
Education and Administration
An educator by training, Monique Colon Toso has led a successful educational effort called "Proudly Pro-Life Week" in the Archdiocese of New Orleans' elementary and high schools that has been exported to schools around the nation. The educational program is a project of "Parents for Life," which Monique founded in 2000.
Monique also serves as Executive Assistant for the development and administrative operations of Bioethics Defense Fund. Monique also handles event planning, and assists in BDF's liason with public policy organizations, legislators and civic groups seeking bioethics policy advice and briefing seminars.
Monique lives in New Orleans, Louisiana with her husband and two daughters.
Cindy M. Northon, Esq.
Legal Counsel & Youth Outreach
Cindy M. Northon, Esq. serves as Legal Counsel and Youth Outreach Specialist. Prior to joining the Bioethics Defense Fund, Cindy worked as a publicist in New York City, New York and Nashville, Tennessee.
While in law school, Cindy served as Vice President of the Moot Court Board, Publicist for Lex Vitae and Secretary of the Women's Law Association. Cindy competed as part of the Michigan Moot Court Championship team in 2003, and was awarded the St. Catherine of Alexandria Award for excellence in oral advocacy. She was on the Law School Dean's List and was a recipient of a Dean's Scholarship.
Ms. Northon worked as an extern with the in-house counsel of IMG Sports Management, Cleveland, Ohio and as a summer associate with the law firm of Miller, Johnson, Snell and Cummisky, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Cindy is a graduate of Boston College (B.S. 1995) and of Ave Maria School of Law (J.D 2004). She lives in Florida, Michigan with her husband and three children.
President and General Counsel
Nikolas T. Nikas is President and General Counsel of the Bioethics Defense Fund. Nikas has directed national legal strategy on the issues of human cloning/embryonic stem cell research, abortion and end-of-life issues since 1992. His areas of expertise include legislative drafting, litigation and public education.
Nikas impacts legislative strategy by drafting life-protective model legislation on a host of issues, and by consulting with legislators and policy leaders in all 50 states and Congress. He also testifies in legislative committees on the constitutionality of bioethics legislation.
Nikas leads bioethics litigation efforts by providing strategic counsel to state attorneys general and by directly litigating federal court challenges to enacted legislation when appointed by state officials. Nikas has served as a special assistant attorney general for the state of Arizona in its partial-birth abortion litigation, and as special deputy Maricopa County attorney in the currently pending constitutional challenge to Arizona’s abortion clinic regulation law. He has also litigated ballot initiatives regarding human cloning and embryonic stem cell research, and healthcare rights of conscience.
In 2000 Nikas organized and participated in the oral argument preparation for Nebraska Attorney General Don Stenberg in the U.S. Supreme Court partial-birth abortion case, Carhart v. Stenberg, in which Nikas also filed an amicus curiae brief. Nikas consulted with members and legal staff of the President’s Council on Bioethics in Washington, D.C., and has testified before the U.S. Senate on abortion and First Amendment rights.
Nikas is a dynamic speaker, having lectured on the full range of bioethics topics at legal and medical conferences and leading law schools, including Stanford, Columbia, Notre Dame and dozens of others. He has lectured internationally on the issue of health care rights of conscience, including several addresses at the Rome conference of Matercare and the International Catholic Medical Association.
Before dedicating his law practice to bioethics issues, Nikas was associated with two of the largest firms in Arizona, focusing on civil litigation in Arizona federal and state courts.
Nikas received his B.A. (1979) in government and international relations, and his M.A. (1981) in political philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. He received his juris doctor, magna cum laude, in 1986 from Arizona State University College of Law, where he graduated in the top five percent of his class. He was awarded the Order of the Coif and served as an articles editor of the Arizona State Law Journal. Nikas lives in Phoenix, Arizona, with his wife and their five children.
Dorinda C. Bordlee
Vice President, Senior Counsel
Dorinda C. Bordlee, Esq. is Vice President, Senior Counsel of Bioethics Defense Fund, a bioethics law and policy organization that advocates for human rights from beginning to end. She has dedicated her law practice to sanctity of life constitutional issues since 1994.
Dorinda's expertise is in the public policy realm, having drafted legislation and user friendly education pieces for dozens of States on the full range of bioethics issues including healthcare rights of conscience, abortion and its impact on women's health, human cloning, destructive human embryo research, and end-of-life issues such as physician-assisted suicide and healthcare rationing.
Dorinda also has wide-ranging litigation and appellate advocacy experience defending the constitutionality of life issue laws in U.S. federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. She has consulted with members and legal staff of the President's Council on Bioethics.
Dorinda is the author of a chapter on abortion alternatives in the 2004 book entitled The Cost of Choice, and she has published articles and opinion pieces on topics including authentic feminism, healthcare reform, and human cloning in national publications including National Review Online, the New York Times, and the Washington Times, and has appeared on CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, EWTN and C-Span. Her speaking engagements range from university and law schools to national and international legal and medical conferences, including the Rome conferences of Matercare and the International Catholic Medical Association.
Dorinda received her B.A. in Finance, summa cum laude (1987), and Juris Doctor (1990) from Loyola University, New Orleans. She lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband and their four children.
Tim Casey
Litigation Counsel
Monique Colon Toso
Education and Administration
An educator by training, Monique Colon Toso has led a successful educational effort called "Proudly Pro-Life Week" in the Archdiocese of New Orleans' elementary and high schools that has been exported to schools around the nation. The educational program is a project of "Parents for Life," which Monique founded in 2000. Monique also serves as Executive Assistant for the development and administrative operations of Bioethics Defense Fund. Monique also handles event planning, and assists in BDF's liason with public policy organizations, legislators and civic groups seeking bioethics policy advice and briefing seminars.
Monique lives in New Orleans, Louisiana with her husband and two daughters.
Cindy M. Northon, Esq.
Legal Counsel & Youth Outreach
Cindy M. Northon, Esq. serves as Legal Counsel and Youth Outreach Specialist. Prior to joining the Bioethics Defense Fund, Cindy worked as a publicist in New York City, New York and Nashville, Tennessee.
While in law school, Cindy served as Vice President of the Moot Court Board, Publicist for Lex Vitae and Secretary of the Women's Law Association. Cindy competed as part of the Michigan Moot Court Championship team in 2003, and was awarded the St. Catherine of Alexandria Award for excellence in oral advocacy. She was on the Law School Dean's List and was a recipient of a Dean's Scholarship.
Ms. Northon worked as an extern with the in-house counsel of IMG Sports Management, Cleveland, Ohio and as a summer associate with the law firm of Miller, Johnson, Snell and Cummisky, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Cindy is a graduate of Boston College (B.S. 1995) and of Ave Maria School of Law (J.D 2004). She lives in Florida, Michigan with her husband and three children.
Maureen L. Condic, Ph.D.
Science Advisor
Dr. Condic is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah School of Medicine, with an adjunct appointment in the department of Pediatrics. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley and postdoctoral training at the University of Minnesota.
Since her appointment at the University of Utah in 1997, Dr. Condic's primary research focus has been the development and regeneration of the nervous system. In 1999, she was awarded the Basil O'Connor Young Investigator Award for her studies of peripheral nervous system development. In 2002, she was named a McKnight Neuroscience of Brain Disorders Investigator, in recognition of her research in the field of adult spinal cord regeneration.
In addition to her scientific research, Dr. Condic teaches both graduate and medical students. Her teaching focuses primarily on embryonic development, and she directed the University of Utah School of Medicine's course in Human Embryology. Dr. Condic has a strong commitment to public education and science literacy. She has published and presented seminars nationally and internationally on science policy and bioethics, focusing on issues regarding various forms of stem cell research. Dr. Condic currently resides in Salt Lake City with her husband and four children.
Rev. Thomas Berg, Ph.D.
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Advisor
Fr. Thomas Berg is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, and is Executive Director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person. He received a doctorate in Philosophy from Rome's Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum in 1999, and has degrees from the Pontifical Gregorian University and Marquette. He specializes in natural law theory, personhood theory, and biomedical issues in relation to democracy and political philosophy. He is a member of the Ethics Committee of New York's Empire State Stem Cell Board.
Fr. Berg has coordinated a working-group of moral theologians, philosophers and scientists in an on-going study of the moral status of the human embryo and the viability of proposed alternatives to embryo-destructive stem cell research. He has published and been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Crisis Magazine, and National Review Online.
Fr. Berg is a frequent speaker on a range of topics in the area of moral theology and bioethics, especially those dealing with the moral status of the human embryo, alternatives to embryo-destructive stem cell research, and emerging biotechnologies. He has appeared on EWTN, PBS and Fox News Channel, and has spoken at leading law schools.
James Hirsen, Esq.
New Media Advisor
James Hirsen is a New York Times best selling author, commentator, news analyst and law professor.
Sought after for his expertise on current events and cultural matters, and most recently his experience in bioethics policy involving California’s Prop 71, Hirsen has appeared on the O’Reilly Factor, Weekend Live with Tony Snow, Scarborough Country, CNN’s People in the News, Fox and Friends, Hardball with Chris Matthews, the BBC, ABC’s Politically Incorrect, CNN's Inside Politics with Judy Woodruff and numerous other television programs.
Hirsen’s ideas have been quoted in major publications including the Washington Times, the Weekly Standard, the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition, he hosts his own radio program on the Cable Radio Network, which reaches millions of households via cable television systems, PAX-TV, satellite users, Internet broadcasting and the Langer Broadcasting Network, a 100-station radio network headquartered in Boston.
Hirsen is a pundit for NewsMax.com and author of the popular weekly column, “The Left Coast Report,” where he takes a humorous poke at the politics of Hollywood. He is the author of the New York Times best-selling book, Tales from the Left Coast: True Stories of Hollywood Stars and Their Outrageous Politics.
Hirsen teaches law at both Trinity Law School and Biola University in Southern California. He is admitted to practice in the California and Washington, D.C. Bar Associations, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of International Trade.
Before setting his sights on the legal, communications and publishing worlds, Hirsen worked as a professional musician. He participated in numerous studio recordings, film scores and performance events, and for a number of years was keyboardist for one of the most legendary groups of all times, the Temptations.
James Hirsen and his wife currently reside in Newport Beach, California.
Science Advisor
Dr. Condic is an Associate Professor of Neurobiology and Anatomy at the University of Utah School of Medicine, with an adjunct appointment in the department of Pediatrics. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago, her doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley and postdoctoral training at the University of Minnesota. Since her appointment at the University of Utah in 1997, Dr. Condic's primary research focus has been the development and regeneration of the nervous system. In 1999, she was awarded the Basil O'Connor Young Investigator Award for her studies of peripheral nervous system development. In 2002, she was named a McKnight Neuroscience of Brain Disorders Investigator, in recognition of her research in the field of adult spinal cord regeneration.
In addition to her scientific research, Dr. Condic teaches both graduate and medical students. Her teaching focuses primarily on embryonic development, and she directed the University of Utah School of Medicine's course in Human Embryology. Dr. Condic has a strong commitment to public education and science literacy. She has published and presented seminars nationally and internationally on science policy and bioethics, focusing on issues regarding various forms of stem cell research. Dr. Condic currently resides in Salt Lake City with her husband and four children.
Rev. Thomas Berg, Ph.D.
Ethics and Moral Philosophy Advisor
Fr. Thomas Berg is a priest of the Archdiocese of New York, and is Executive Director of the Westchester Institute for Ethics and the Human Person. He received a doctorate in Philosophy from Rome's Pontifical University Regina Apostolorum in 1999, and has degrees from the Pontifical Gregorian University and Marquette. He specializes in natural law theory, personhood theory, and biomedical issues in relation to democracy and political philosophy. He is a member of the Ethics Committee of New York's Empire State Stem Cell Board.Fr. Berg has coordinated a working-group of moral theologians, philosophers and scientists in an on-going study of the moral status of the human embryo and the viability of proposed alternatives to embryo-destructive stem cell research. He has published and been quoted in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Crisis Magazine, and National Review Online.
Fr. Berg is a frequent speaker on a range of topics in the area of moral theology and bioethics, especially those dealing with the moral status of the human embryo, alternatives to embryo-destructive stem cell research, and emerging biotechnologies. He has appeared on EWTN, PBS and Fox News Channel, and has spoken at leading law schools.
James Hirsen, Esq.
New Media Advisor
James Hirsen is a New York Times best selling author, commentator, news analyst and law professor.
Sought after for his expertise on current events and cultural matters, and most recently his experience in bioethics policy involving California’s Prop 71, Hirsen has appeared on the O’Reilly Factor, Weekend Live with Tony Snow, Scarborough Country, CNN’s People in the News, Fox and Friends, Hardball with Chris Matthews, the BBC, ABC’s Politically Incorrect, CNN's Inside Politics with Judy Woodruff and numerous other television programs.
Hirsen’s ideas have been quoted in major publications including the Washington Times, the Weekly Standard, the New York Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition, he hosts his own radio program on the Cable Radio Network, which reaches millions of households via cable television systems, PAX-TV, satellite users, Internet broadcasting and the Langer Broadcasting Network, a 100-station radio network headquartered in Boston.
Hirsen is a pundit for NewsMax.com and author of the popular weekly column, “The Left Coast Report,” where he takes a humorous poke at the politics of Hollywood. He is the author of the New York Times best-selling book, Tales from the Left Coast: True Stories of Hollywood Stars and Their Outrageous Politics.
Hirsen teaches law at both Trinity Law School and Biola University in Southern California. He is admitted to practice in the California and Washington, D.C. Bar Associations, as well as the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of International Trade.
Before setting his sights on the legal, communications and publishing worlds, Hirsen worked as a professional musician. He participated in numerous studio recordings, film scores and performance events, and for a number of years was keyboardist for one of the most legendary groups of all times, the Temptations.
James Hirsen and his wife currently reside in Newport Beach, California.
BDF Board of Directors
LeeAnne Abel
Anthony J. Bordlee
George Hays
David J. Lukinovich
Scott Whitfield
LeeAnne Abel
Anthony J. Bordlee
George Hays
David J. Lukinovich
Scott Whitfield
What They’re Saying. . .