What is Bioethics Defense Fund (BDF)?

BDF is a pro-life public-interest legal and educational organization that works throughout the United States and abroad.

What is BDF’s mission?
The mission of Bioethics Defense Fund is to put law in the service of human life by strategically advocating for the restoration of the fundamental human right to life through litigation, model legislation, education and media.

Why is Bioethics Defense Fund unique?
Bioethics Defense Fund advocates for a culture of life by understanding and applying the relevant legal, scientific and medical arguments in light of a philosophical anthropology grounded in the natural law and the compatibility of faith and reason.

BDF attorneys Nikolas T. Nikas and Dorinda C. Bordlee are known for their expertise in translating the profound truths of morality, law, and medicine into easy-to-understand legal and policy arguments that can be used by:

• – Legislators, judges, lawyers, and law students;
• – Physicians, medical students and other healthcare professionals;
• – Journalists and new media; and
• – Clergy, seminarians and all men and women of good will.

What are the issues addressed by Bioethics Defense Fund?
BDF’s expertise is in the following areas:

• – Abortion and its impact on women’s health, prenatal disability discrimination and sex trafficking;
• – Biotech threats to human dignity including human cloning, destructive human embryo research, human egg harvesting, in vitro fertilization practices, contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs, and more;
• – Euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, and end-of-life decision making; and
• – Rights of conscience for healthcare professionals, and protecting individual religious liberty from coercive government mandates.

What does Bioethics Defense Fund do?
Litigation:  BDF files lawsuits, provides strategic legal consultation to other attorneys, files amicus briefs in key federal and state court cases, prepares lawyers for oral arguments in appellate courts (including the U.S. Supreme Court), and initiates legal research to be incorporated in future prolife legal efforts.

• – Model Legislation:  BDF drafts cutting-edge model laws to be used in various state legislatures; testifies as legal experts before state legislative committees, drafts prolife policy guides to educate legislators, media and the general public; provide ongoing consultation regarding pending legislation; conduct legislator educational seminars.
• – Education:  BDF creates and delivers dynamic lectures and debates at law schools, medical schools, undergraduate colleges, universities and seminaries; and are frequent speakers at professional legal, medical and civic conferences.
• – Media:  BDF attorneys draft timely opinion pieces, prepare compelling articles, offer insightful interviews for television and radio, and provide critical background information for national syndicated columnists and journalists.

Who are the founders of BDF?
Nikolas T. Nikas (Notre Dame, ASU) and Dorinda C. Bordlee (Loyola New Orleans) are the founders of the Bioethics Defense Fund.  They are well credentialed and accomplished attorneys who each have over 20 years experience in the prolife legal and educational arenas.  Both Nikas and Bordlee were at the top of their law school graduating classes and each left prestigious legal careers in the early 1990s to dedicate their professional talents to restoring a culture of life. They collaborate with leading academics, medical doctors, theologians, scientists and journalists to advance BDF’s mission of putting law in the service of human life.

Staff Biographies

Contact us for media interviews, legal consultation or educational speaking.