Summer Institute
Application Process
History of the Institute
Lists of Participants, Lecturers, and Seminars by year
Yale’s Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics offers a unique 2-month-long intensive summer program for American and international undergraduate and graduate students (and others) from varying disciplines who are interested in learning more about bioethics. Participants attend a series of morning lectures surveying the field of bioethics; attend intensive seminars on special topics such as care for the dying, bioethics and law, bioethics and media, literature, technology and ethics, public health ethics, and feminist approaches to bioethics; attend a bioethics film/discussion series; participate in field trips to bioethics-related institutions; and present an original paper at a final in-house “mini-conference”. Participants are usually in residence on the Yale campus, and can sometimes find part-time work on the Yale campus or in the area.
Lectures and seminars will often be presented by scholars from Yale, though there are also speakers from other universities and institutions. (See the list of lecturers and seminars below.) Lecture attendance is compulsory and required reading assignments will be distributed. A series of seminars will be offered to stimulate discussion and a deeper consideration of ethical issues. Students can usually sign up for their choice of two seminars each month.
“Bioethics Field Trips” generally include visits to The Hastings Center (a major independent bioethics think-tank in Garrison, NY); the Connecticut Hospice in Branford, CT; and the Monsanto Corporation’s Research Center in Mystic, CT, as well as an ecological exploration of Long Island Sound via schooner.
Research “Mini-Conference.” One goal of the summer program is to provide participants with the opportunity to research, write, and present a paper on a selected topic in bioethics. Participants will be expected to write a paper on a bioethics topic of their choice to be handed in at the end of the program. Additionally, they will be required to present the paper at the annual end-of-program “Mini-Conference.”
Evaluation of Work Product. Students will receive feedback on their final projects and will be asked to evaluate the program at its conclusion.
To Apply: Each candidate must submit a current transcript; a 1- to 2-page letter of intent discussing the candidate’s interest in bioethics; a letter of recommendation from a professor or mentor; and a CV or resume. Candidates for whom English is not the first language may need to speak with representatives of the selection committee by telephone in order to demonstrate competence in spoken English. The deadline for US students for the summer 2013 program is January 15, 2013. Due to VISA issues, foreign students should apply by November 30, 2012. Applications after that date will still be considered, but we cannot make guarantees about your ability to get a VISA on time. However, it is also possible to defer your attendance until the following summer. For inquiries and to submit the completed documents via e-mail, please contact Carol Pollard.
Selection of Participants: Qualified students will have demonstrated an interest in the area of bioethics, either by having taken courses or written papers in the area, or by having seriously engaged with bioethical issues through work or extracurricular activities. Yale reads “bioethics” broadly to include medical, biological and environmental ethics. Candidates may be undergraduates, graduate students, or post-graduates in any field, from law to religion, from forestry to medicine, from philosophy to political science, from literature to anthropology, so long as they can make the case for the contribution of their field to bioethical debate. The selection committee will choose candidates on the basis of their established interest in the field, evidence of their academic ability, evidence of their capacity to contribute to the internship’s group experience; and relevant intellectual, life, and work experience.
Fees: For the summer of 2012, the fees were $1,250 (undergraduates), $2,000 (graduate students and post-doctoral fellows), and $3,000 (professionals); this is exclusive of transportation and housing costs, which participants must fund themselves. The fee must be paid by check (either bank or personal); we cannot accept credit cards, wire transfers, or cash. The Bioethics Center can facilitate access to relatively inexpensive on-campus dormitory-style housing. Rates may vary by amenities offered. These fees must be paid to the housing office, not the Bioethics Center. In general, the use of this housing is only possible during the period of the internship; specific dates will be conveyed to participants each year.
The Institute began as a Summer Internship Program in 2003 as a response to many requests from Yale’s undergraduate students for more educational opportunities in the field of bioethics. The original program involved students in the intellectual life of the Bioethics Center, and gave them opportunities to join in the work of the Center by assisting in editing Center publications and in planning the Center’s study groups’ activities for the following academic year. In subsequent years the program took on an increasingly academic cast, building in more lectures and intensive seminars; and has grown to include participants from universities all around America and the world.
Transportation around and off campus:
a) Yale has a free shuttle that goes around campus. You can see the locations of the shuttles in real time. Visit http://www.yale.edu/transportationoptions/shuttle/ to learn about this lovely service.
b) New Haven also has a fine city bus system. Click here to see the various routes that go to and from New Haven. The normal local fare is $1.25, but multi-ride passes or unlimited number-of-days passes are also available (click the fares tab on the above website for details).
c) Parking can be challenging in New Haven, particularly to those unused to city parking signs (such as the author of this website, who thought "NO STANDING" meant you shouldn't stand there). If you are considering bringing a car to campus, please visit this website for more information.
Housing alternatives:
The Bioethics Center cannot make housing arrangements for you other than the dormitory. However, you will have the opportunity to coordinate with fellow participants if you wish to sublet apartments together. We suggest the Yale classifieds and craigslist as valuable resources.
We will send you paperwork to begin the process of obtaining a visa. However, you may wish to learn about the process ahead of time. The Yale Office of International Students & Scholars has lots of helpful information. Students who are coming to our program will find this page of their website particularly helpful regarding the visa and the SEVIS fee, and this page helpful regarding health insurance coverage. You can also email us if you still have questions.
2013 Lectures
2013 Seminars
2013 Participants
Previous years
Jonathan Borak
Clinical Professor of Epidemiology & Public Health and Clinical Professor of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine The Ethics of Risk Assessment
R. Douglas Bruce
Assistant Professor of Medicine (AIDS), Yale School of Medicine
Ethical Dilemmas in Research Where Drug Users Are Concerned
Daniel Callahan
Senior Scholar and President Emeritus, The Hastings Center
Ethics and the Future of Medicine
Ananda Chakrabarty
Distinguished University professor, University of Calcutta, India; Distinguished University Professor, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Illinois at Chicago, College of Medicine
Government policies, patents and court cases: Interfacing of law, medicine and bio-ethics
Thomas Duffy
Professor of Medicine; Director, Program for Humanities in Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
Reflections on Portraits of an Illness
Anne Fadiman
Yale University’s Francis Writer-in-Residence
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: The Challenges of Crosscultural Medical Care
Roberta R. Friedman
Director of Public Policy, Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity: An overview
John Grim
Senior Lecturer and Research Scholar, Yale University; Co-Coordinator, Forum on Religion & Ecology
Native American Religions: Toward an environmental ethic
Robert W. Gwadz
Assistant Chief, Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research; Head; International Studies of Malaria and Entomology Section, NIAID, NIH, DHHS, National Institutes of Health
Malaria and Ethics: An oxymoron – dealing with neurosyphilis, DDT and Chimpanzees, and the perfidy of the European Union Towards Africa
John Hughes
Professor of Internal Medicine (General Medicine), Yale School of Medicine
The Iron Triangle of American Health Care
Marcia Inhorn
William K. Lanham, Jr. Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs; Editor, Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies (JMEWS), Council on Middle East Studies, Yale University
Global Gametes: Reproductive “tourism” and Islamic bioethics in the high-tech Middle East
Shelly Kagan
Professor of Philosophy, Yale University
Applied Ethics and the Distinction between Killing and Letting Die
Dan Kahan
Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law, Yale University
Science Literacy, Cultural Conflict, & Climate Change
Kaveh Khoshnood
Associate Professor, Yale School of Public Health
Ethical Issues in Student-led Short Term Global Health Research Projects
Susan Kopp
Professor of Health Sciences, Veterinary Technology Program, LaGuardia College, (City University of New York); Affiliated Scholar, Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
Ethics, Animals, and the World We Share
Diane Krause
Professor of Laboratory Medicine, Pathology and Cell
Biology, Yale School of Medicine
AND
Stephen Latham
Director, Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
Embryonic and Adult Stem Cells and Their Potential Clinical Use / Ethical Considerations
Stephen Latham
Director, Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
Bioethics and the Law
Bandy Lee
Clinician (Psychiatry); Assistant Clinical Professor (Psychiatry), Yale School of Medicine; Co-Founder, Yale University’s Violence and Health Group (Law and Psychiatry Division)
Violence, Its Causes, and Prevention
Robert J. Levine
Senior Scholar in Research Ethics and Past Co-Director, Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics; Professor of Internal Medicine, Lecturer in Pharmacology, Yale School of Medicine
Origins of the ethical norms and principles for research involving human subjects
Scott Long
Senior Physician, Connecticut Hospice; Associate Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
Evolution of Hospice in the United States as a Reflection of the Times
Ellen T. Matloff
Research Scientist, Department of Genetics, Yale School of Medicine; Director, Cancer Genetic Counseling, Yale Cancer Center
Direct-to-Consumer Genetic Testing: Helpful, Harmful or Pure Entertainment?
Maurice (Jeremiah) Mahoney
Professor of Genetics (Pediatrics); Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology; Executive Chair, Yale University Institutional Review Boards, Yale School of Medicine
Influencing ("Designing" "Choosing") Characteristics of Your Children When They Are Embryos or Fetuses
Mark Mercurio
Associate Professor of Pediatrics; Director, Pediatric Ethics Program, Yale School of Medicine; Director, Program for Biomedical Ethics, Yale School of Medicine
Ethical Issues in Extreme Prematurity
Thomas Murray
Senior Research Scholar and President Emeritus, The Hastings Center; the Dwight H. Terry Visiting Scholar in Bioethics, Yale University
TBA
Timothy Nelson
Professor of Molecular, Cellular & Developmental Biology, Yale University
Agricultural biotechnology: Potential for synergy between traditional and biotech methods in agriculture and food production
Sherwin B. Nuland
Clinical Professor of Surgery Emeritus, Yale School of Medicine
The Goodness of the Physician: From Hippocrates to high-tech
Pasquale Patrizio
Director, Yale Fertility Center, Yale School of Medicine
Postponement and Preservation of Fertility: Ethical and social implications
Aron Rose
Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Yale School of Medicine; Associate Clinical Professor, Graduate Entry Pre-speciality in Nursing, Yale School of Nursing
The Ethics Of Overseas Surgical Volunteerism
Frederick Simmons
Assistant Professor of Ethics, Yale Divinity School
The Nature, Sources, and Moral Significance of Human Dignity
Bennett A. Shaywitz
Charles and Helen Schwab Professor in Dyslexia and Learning Development; Co-Director, Center for Dyslexia and Creativity; Department of Neurology; Section Chief, Department of Pediatrics, Yale School of Medicine
AND
Sally E. Shaywitz
The Audrey G. Ratner Professor in Learning Development; Yale University School of Medicine; Co-Director, Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity
Dyslexia and Creativity
John H. Warner
Chairman/Avalon Professor, History of Medicine, Yale School of Medicine; Professor, American Studies Program and Department of History, Yale University
Historical Perspectives on the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and Its Legacies
Wendell Wallach
Lecturer and Scholar, Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
From Robots to Techno Sapiens: Ethics, law and public policy in the development of robots and neurotechnologies
Robert Wyman
Professor of Biology; Program Director for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Science Education Program, Yale University
How Societies Control Population
Howard Zonana
Professor of Psychiatry, Yale School of Medicine; Clinical Professor (Adjunct) Law, Yale Law School
Use of Forced Medication on Defendants and in Psychiatric Facilities
Research Ethics
This three-week seminar will examine the ethics of medical research involving vulnerable human populations, such as the poor, pregnant women, children, and prisoners and other populations, such as animals. Each session will focus on one group in particular. We will analyze these issues from both domestic and international perspectives. To this end, the course readings will include ethical policies from a variety of countries, in addition to pieces that explore the philosophical and moral issues surrounding this research. The seminar will utilize a “hyperprep” structure. I will split the seminar members into two groups, and, for each session, one of these two groups will be designated as the hyperprep group, meaning that those individuals have a “hyper-obligation” to prepare for the class. As a practical matter, this translates to the fact I will feel free to call on hyperprep group members to initiate discussion. The system will fail if group members only do the reading for half the sessions, or if seminar members feel intimidated for those days they are “on”. Our tone will highly collegial and mutually supportive.
Living with Disability
Series Description: This seminar series will strive to impart an awareness of the perspective and experience of persons living with disability contrasted with current bioethical stances. We will employ basic ethical principles to examine societal responses to people living with disabilities. Through the use of select readings, video and personal accounts, students will examine social structures and personal experience of disability in law, government, clinical settings, community and intimate relationships.
Students who attend this seminar series will: Recognize variations in perspectives of persons with disabilities and current bioethical dialogue; Be aware of philosophical frameworks employed in bioethical considerations on disability; Include disability perspective in decision-making processes affecting persons with disability.
Stem Cells, Genetics, and Enhancement
The Human Genome Project came with high hopes, huge promises and considerable trepidation. The information yielded by this project has already begun to transform the theory and practice of medicine, narratives of human history, and individual and collective identity. There is considerable talk of the ethical dilemmas that have surfaced with the new technologies that have accompanied the genome science: should we offer genetic tests to persons for untreatable diseases? Should we inform family members about the results of genetics tests of individuals? What is the role of the 'right not to know'? How should we interpret the probabilistic nature of genetic information? Where is the boundary between property and human life, and what should be eligible for patenting? Are we our genes? These will be some of the issues we discuss in this class. The goal of this class is to stimulate critical reflection on the complex interrelationship between genetics and society. We will begin with the issues in reprogenetics and direct to consumer personal genome testing. There will be discussions on the topics of privacy and enhancement. The last session will provide an overview of the ethical issues in stem cell research and therapy. Some of the sessions will include presentations by guest speakers from Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale School of Medicine.
Contemporary Ethical Problems in Biotechnology and Bio-Medical Sciences
In modern biotechnology and bio-medical sciences we face ethical problems that often did not exist a few years ago because the “reference technology” did not yet exist. Apparently specific problems, e.g. patenting new life forms, seems to make it necessary to form a “new ethics,” and so traditional moral principles may not apply to ethical aspects of modern science. Do we really need new ethics? And what can be said about ethics if it had an expiry date? Examples from contemporary biotechnology, such as genetically modified organisms (GMO), human embryonic stem cells, and gene therapy shall be discussed and possible solutions developed. The goals of this seminar are for the student to acquire information about: the progression of biomedical sciences; contemporary bio-ethics; fundamental terms; concepts and ideas of ethics; different ethics models in history through the present time.
Introduction to the Ethical Aspects of the “Star Trek” Saga
For over four decades the Star Trek Saga has become a kind of moral institution by showing a positive image about man's future based on the highest values. Star Trek ethics has become a synonym for what man can attain based on morality: a utopian society of justice and (almost) eternal peace. The authors of Star Trek, with its inventor Gene Roddenberry leading the way, have built a fictional perfect human society established on “perfect” ethics. What exactly is Star Trek ethics? What is the actual connection between bioethics and the Star Trek Saga? Can the Star Trek saga be an example of organizing ethics in such a way that it creates that perfect society? How are different aspects of ethics connected to each other? A working hypothesis: Star Trek Ethics will show how ethics generally is organized, how it comes from values to moral rules, and that ethics must be homogenous in all aspects to have the best impact!
The goals of this seminar are to give the student: Advanced knowledge on basics and history of Star Trek; Advanced knowledge on fundamental terms, -concepts and –ideas of Star Trek; Advanced knowledge on different ethics models in Star Trek; Advanced knowledge of ethics structures in Star Trek.
Bioethics Across Religious Traditions
This seminar will cover the basic bioethical issues and how different religious traditions and people address them. Throughout the seminar, we will keep in mind that the status and value of the body and existence of a spirit or soul deeply affects how religious traditions and people will interpret biological, medical, and health care issues. Key topics will include “theological anthropology,” belief in an afterlife and its impact on decision-making, different religious values on compassion and suffering, and religious ideals of healing and ministry.
Bioethics and the Law
This seminar will examine the basic treatment by American law of some major issues in contemporary biomedical ethics. Readings will include standard legal materials such as cases and regulations, a number of quasi-legal sources such as government commission reports and institutional guidelines, and some academic articles. No familiarity with legal materials is assumed; indeed, this seminar is designed for students with no background in American law. For each of the topics listed below, the instructor will offer a very broad and necessarily cursory overview of the area, and then will focus seminar discussion on one or two sub-issues to be addressed in detail. While the focus will be American law, some comparative-law readings will be supplied in order to bring possible alternative approaches to light. Topics include the basics of the US legal system; abortion; end-of-life care and aid-in-dying; assisted reproduction; stem-cell research; organ donation; research on human subjects; and health care reform.
Bioethical Issues and the Rights of Children
The concept of childhood has evolved in the context of public policy as much as in culture, religion and other paradigms. In the framework of human rights there have been tensions between those of children, parents (biological and otherwise) and the state. This seminar series will consider the child’s perspective in decision-making processes that endeavor to promote respect for person, justice and beneficence while accommodating growth and development. We will discuss ethical dilemmas that develop in the mix of children’s social status, public systems they encounter, and issues that impact their lives. Students who participate in this seminar series will: Recognize the developmental stage of childhood in the context of public policy and relationships with other groups and social systems; Use the principles of bioethics to argue for balancing the rights of children, parents and the state.
Public Health Ethics
This seminar series will examine the ethical implications of some of the major areas of public health practice and policy. The format will be interactive. Each session will open with a brief presentation by one of the students of the group reading the assignment for that session followed by comments from the facilitators and open discussion. Topics to be covered include: analytical framework for public health ethics, ethical aspects of preparedness planning for public health emergencies, the genome and public health, mandatory vaccination of children and health care workers, environment and public health ethics, public health and socioeconomic health disparities.
Empathy and the Practice of Medicine
We will examine medical ethics policies, landmark clinical trials, and specific patient cases through the lens of empathy. This seminar series will include facts-based discussions about the topics and the bioethical issues involved – as well as experiential tasks to facilitate integration of both the cognitive and emotional domains related to empathy. Our discussions will be enhanced by a visit to the renowned Cushing Library at the Yale School of Medicine; all other sessions will be held at the Yale University Art Gallery since those seminars will be enhanced by guided discussions of relevant pieces of art from the Collection. This approach - and the class content - may be particularly relevant for those who are interested in practitioner roles (including medicine, nursing, social work, and chaplaincy). We will explore many questions, including the following: When might absent empathetic responses lead to indifferent healthcare policy – and cause harm against the disenfranchised? When empathy may be dampened, what are safeguards that can be put in place to protect research subjects and patients? How can empathy facilitate healing from trauma? How might an empathic response dissolve a patient’s desire to sue their physician? How can this powerful emotion help to connect practitioners and patients in healthy ways?
Neuroethics
This seminar will examine ethical and social issues raised by developments in the neurosciences. Topics will include brain imaging, issues of privacy and stigmatization; cognitive remediation training programs; neuroscience in the courtroom; and pressing developments in pediatric psychiatry and adult neurology. Guest speakers from Yale School of Medicine will present case studies of pressing issues within these subject areas.
Ethical Issues in Organ Transplantation and Allocation
Organ transplantation is a complex modern medical invention posing some complex ethical questions. The ethical problems of organ transplantation result from the fact that it is a highly risky and, at the same time, highly beneficial procedure, involving questions of personhood, bodily integrity, attitudes towards the dead, and the social and symbolic value of human body parts. The moral debate around transplantation can be divided into three general topics: deciding when human beings are dead, deciding when it is ethical to procure organs, and deciding how to allocate organs once they are procured. These three topics will provide the framework for the class. We will talk about the ethics of current allocation policies, giving a special attention to the commercialization of organ donation. One session will address the religious and cultural issues in organ donation. The definition of death debate that is historically closely intertwined with transplantation will be the topic of another session. Since almost half of the donated kidneys come from living donors, we will discuss ethical issues in living donation. The last session will offer an overview of the ethical concerns regarding hand/face transplantation. Some of the sessions will include presentations by guest speakers from Yale New Haven Hospital and Yale School of Medicine.
A Philosophical Introduction to Ethical Theory
Our lives are full of choices to be made, ranging from trivial day-to-day choices to profound, life-shaping ones. How should we choose? More broadly, how should we live? And why should we live that way? The goal of ethical theory is to arrive at an answer to these daunting but pressing questions. This seminar is a “crash course” to ethical theory. In our six sessions, we will examine and discuss the structure of ethical theories, key concepts in ethics, historically influential ethical theories (including egoism, utilitarianism, Kantianism, and virtue ethics), different methodological approaches to ethics, and various views about human well-being. In each session, there will be time devoted to engaging in ethical argument and theorizing ourselves. In other words, we will do philosophy, and not merely learn about it. Modest supplementary readings will be assigned. No prior experience with philosophy or ethics is required.
End-Of-Life Issues
This seminar series develops themes involved in each speaker's particular areas of interest. Some leaders of this seminar will be giving morning lectures to all the students prior to giving more focused talks to seminar participants; therefore, some of the sessions will build upon these morning lectures. Topics include: cultural dimensions of end-of-life issues; prognostication; what constitutes a "good death"; palliative sedation; so-called "death panels"; issues particular to infant deaths; grief; and religious issues at end-of-life.
Environmental Ethics
What is the “environment” and who, or what, is worthy of moral consideration in environmental ethics? Elephants? Trees? Rocks? How is human health related to ecosystem health? What are alternative ways – both human-centered and biocentric – of thinking about and living in our environment? The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to core questions and moral frameworks in environmental ethics and, simultaneously, to allow students to explore critical contemporary issues including but not limited to: the moral status of ecosystems; biodiversity loss; global climate change; the relationship between race, gender, poverty, and the environment; and intersections with other bioethics issues such as animal welfare, global health, and food. Group discussion, brief readings, case studies, and interactive breakout exercises will be part of this course. No prior experience in environmental ethics is required – participants will be encouraged to be exploratory, inquisitive, and interactive in their learning.
Medical Ethical Debates in Popular Culture
This course seeks to evaluate medical ethical issues from the perspective of modern popular culture. Many of the topics covered in other seminars this summer (including, but not limited to, general ethical principles, ethics in law, rights-based ethics, ethics at the end of life, research ethics, and ethics in film and literature) will be discussed in this class, but with the particular lens of their treatment within a pop culture reference. This seminar is intended to be interactive: while students will be asked to read various selections from literature and academia in advance of the class, the ultimate purpose of the readings will be to provide a background from which to begin class discussion. To this end, selections from contemporary films and television programs will be shown in class in order to further stimulate the interactive exchange. The diversity of student backgrounds (including academic discipline) should prove useful as we consider the various intuitions expressed in class. No prior medical ethical or philosophical background is required—just a general desire to read, watch, and discuss!
Self-Determination
What does self-determination have to do with ethics anyway? This course seeks to explore the key role of self-determination skills (individual and/or group) in our lives’ journey. The seminar is divided in six units and is designed to assist the students in experiencing alternative ways of thinking through exploring individual and team self-determination skills development. Creativity and thought provoking exercises will be some of the learning tools used during the class. The primary learning goal of this course is to discover why self-determination is important for each person involved and working in the field of bioethics, and how developing self-determination skills can be an empowering tool that can help them find the wisdom they need to make choices that ultimately will affect the course of their lives and the lives of people they touch.
Narrative Medicine
This seminar will explore the relationships among narrative medicine, narrative ethics, and mediation—three seemingly separate disciplines that, in fact, overlap significantly. A unifying thread, as we shall see, will be the telling and receiving of narrative: how to relate one’s story and how to hear others’. This seminar will incorporate both a theoretical aspect, involving close reading of fictional and non-fictional pieces, and a practical aspect, involving the study of mediation techniques and skills. The course will culminate in a mediation simulation, in which students will enact a clinical scenario based on a real-life case, with several students taking turns serving as mediator. The goal of this exercise is to fuse the previous class sessions’ discussions of narratology, reception, and expression, and how each element emerges in the medical setting.
Perspectives on Aging
What is “old age?” How do we care for it, prepare for it? Because collective wisdom is the richest, each meeting will be a roundtable discussion on the poems and prose excerpts assigned for that day. Focus questions will include: the assumptions and observations we make about aging; personal aspects and ethical dimensions for the downsizing and diminishment inherent in aging; perspectives that savor each season as we inch toward “old age”; the roles that grief and beliefs about death play in aging. Participants will give a five-minute presentation in the final class drawing on their cultural and personal perspectives.
Bioethics and the Media
Bioethics involves questions of good and evil, right and wrong, life and death. Naturally, bioethical topics make for lively cocktail party conversations, exhaustive graduate studies and front-page, above-the-fold headlines. But do these headlines address the most important bioethical issues of the day? We’ll look at what gets covered in bioethics and who covers it. We will consider the role of journalists and journalism in the birth of bioethics as an academic discipline. We will sample and critique popular coverage of bioethics (from the New Yorker to People magazine), looking at the competing demands of storytelling, explanation and balance. A half-dozen bioethics “perennials” will help focus these inquiries: news coverage of suicide; organ transplantation and resource allocation; coverage of infertility treatment and “miracle births;” defining illness and marketing cures; and vaccination. A significant amount of class time will be reserved for discussion of student-written opinion pieces on wide-ranging bioethics topics.
Obesity and Bioethics
Obesity is widely referred to as an epidemic. Some think obesity is genetic, others behavioral. Should the government be involved or is it simply a matter of personal choice? Are individuals equipped to make informed decisions? This course explores the terrain of obesity facts and fictions, public heath ethics, and where responsibility lies when it comes to individual health. The class will analyze case studies, scholarly journal articles, and public policies that are both already in effect and proposed policies regarding obesity and nutrition. Students will be expected to participate in discussions and case studies, as well as complete brief, assigned readings prior to each session.
Topics in Animal & Veterinary Ethics
This seminar will introduce participants to several important areas of animal & veterinary ethics including key ethical issues regarding the use of animals in biomedical research, food animal production and public health. Related topics in veterinary medicine such as euthanasia, the human animal bond, and veterinarian-client-patient relationships will also be briefly explored. Introductory readings and class materials are designed for students in a variety of disciplines and prior background in animal related studies is not required. Format is highly interactive. Overviews of weekly topic areas, including varying perspectives, will be offered at the beginning of each class followed by discussions around readings and class material. Open dialogue, questions, and active group discussions are essential elements of this seminar.
Ethics in the Emergency Room
The emergency department is a place where people are in times of their greatest medical need. It is not surprising that emergency medicine physicians encounter ethical dilemmas, but it is rare to go a single 8 hour shift without facing a difficult non-medical choice. Though rooted in the same principles of medical ethics, ethics in the ER has a different flavor to it. Constraints of time, information, privacy and resources unique in an emergency setting alter the manner by which clinicians and ethicists should approach dilemmas. This series aims to develop hands-on decision-making skills with discussion of common ethical challenges faced in the ER. The short readings include relevant ethical or legal frameworks for each topic as well as a brief story or poem to set the tone for discussion. Each seminar will consist of didactic learning for 20-30 minutes followed by more than an hour of case analysis and discussion.
The Ethics of Disaster Law – Mitigation, Planning and Preparation
What is "disaster law" and what does it encompass? Why is it important to examine this topic? What ethical principles should, and do come into consideration during the mitigation, planning and preparation phases of our response to disaster? The purpose of this course is to introduce the key ethical and legal issues intrinsic to planning and responding to natural disasters. The course will focus on issues surrounding preparation, planning and response to natural disasters and will be examined from the perspective of different stakeholders including policy makers and the State, enforcement and emergency authorities, lawyers and the courts and the victims of natural disasters (with a particular focus on children). The course is designed to encourage interaction and a practical focus on the issues and potential responses. As part of the practical focus, students with a particular interest in the topics covered will be encouraged to develop an 'action plan' for a small project or paper based on what we cover in the seminar. No prior experience in law is necessary although students are encouraged to concurrently enroll in "Bioethics and the Law".
Naoko Akimoto
PhD at Tokyo University
Visiting Scholar at Washington University/ St. Louis, Missouri
Bingham McCutchen Murase, Sakai Mimura Aizawa—Foreign Law Joint Enterprise, Associate Attorney
Ana Alberdi Luengo
Medical Student
European University of Madrid, Spain
Imre Bard
MSc in Cognitive Science
University of Vienna/ Austria
Research Assistant at the Department of Social Science, Health and Medicine, King’s College London; Research Officer at the London School of Economics and Political Science
Mohini Priya Banerjee
Philosophy and Logic
Smith College
Caroline Bass
Political Science
Case Western Reserve University
Sarah Elaine Blackburn
Juris Doctor Candidate
University of South Carolina School of Law
Law Clerk at J. Lewis Cromer and Associates
Tyler Bourgoise
Philosophy
Brown University
Ethan Campbell
Major in Political Science/ Minor in Music
Transylvania University
Juan Carmona
Graduate Student, Sociology
Southern Connecticut State University
Yale University Community Bioethics Forum
Sara Carrascal Seco
Medical Student
European University of Madrid, Spain
Amy Louise Constable
Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Science (Political Science, Health Medicine and the Body, and Environmental Policy)
Australian National University
Luis Coronel Tarancon
Medical Student
European University of Madrid, Spain
Laura Rebecca Dover
Juris Doctor Candidate
University of South Carolina School of Law
Control Room Technician for United Pharmacy Services
Teresa Echeverria Guibert
Medical Student
European University of Madrid, Spain
Theofilos El Sayed Omar
Medical Student
Keele University Medical School/ UK
Ines Esparragosa Vazquez
Medical Student
European University of Madrid, Spain
Ramona Leonora Fernandez
PhD in Health Professional Education
(Psychology, Thanatology, Reproductive Medicine, Bioethics & Biopolitics)
The University of Western Ontario/ Canada
Sebastian Charles Galbo
English/Philosophy at Niagara University
Cultural Studies at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire
Chloé Girard
Masters in Ethics (Theology, Bioethics, Philosophy and Sociology)
University of Strasbourg, France
Beatriz Guerra Buezo
Medical Student
European University of Madrid, Spain
Shahid Mahmood Gul
Assistant Professor, Department of Philosophy
University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
Jessica Hahne
BA in English
Yale University
Assistant at the Yale Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics
Savannah Hartnett
Religion and Psychology
Florida State University
Maria Jimena Hernandez
Juris Doctor Candidate
University of South Carolina School of Law
International Relations at Mary Baldwin College
Laure Hoenen
Masters in Ethics, Masters in French Epistemology and Scientific Mediation
University of Strasbourg
Alexandra Houle-Dupont
The Study
Montreal, Quebec
Fei-Fei Huang, R.N.
PhD Candidate in Nursing
Central South University, Changsha, China
Aissani Imane
Masters in Bioethics and Medical Ethics
University of Strasbourg, France
Matthew Kuan Johnson
Cognitive Science
Yale College
Jessica Garland Kelly
Juris Doctor Candidate
University of South Carolina School of Law
(Political Science and Finance at University of Florida)
Maria M. Kerr
Anthropology/Biology
Transylvania University
Paulina Agnieszka Knobloch
Biotechnology
Jagiellonian University/ Krakow, Poland
Benjamin Lieberman
Philosophy
State University of New York/ Geneseo
Daniel Livendahl
Medical Student
Lund University, Sweden
Deputy Managing Director, Kooperativ Bemanning AS
Maria Carolina Nascimento Maia
Juris Doctor Candidate
Fundação Escola Superior do Ministério Público
Himanayani Mamillapalli
Molecular Cell Biology and Human Rights
University of Connecticut
Brian Marcus
Medical Student
Yale University School of Medicine
Carter Randolph Massingill
Juris Doctor Candidate
University of South Carolina School of Law
Julia Catherine Formoso McGirr
Biology
Brown University
Gilan M. Merwanji
Juris Doctor Candidate (2015)
Masters of Social Work Candidate (2015)
Case Western Reserve University
Linnea Mary Michaels
Masters of Bioethics Candidate
Masters of Social Work Candidate
University of Pennsylvania
James Gerard Muller
Major in Political Science, Minors in Philosophy and Legal Studies
SUNY Geneseo
Patrick Nagel
Philosophy and Mathematics
TU Dortmund University, Germany
Rebecca Kendall Oliver
Double Major in Biology and Spanish
Transylvania University
Reina Ozeki
Department of Biomedical Ethics, Social Medicine
University of Tokyo Graduate School of Medicine
Joshua Page
BS in Biology, BA in Philosophy
Southwestern University
Stephanie Cristina Paiva Ferreira
Juris Doctor Candidate
Fundação Escola Superior do Ministério Público
Cristina Pardini
PhD Candidate in Private Law
Università di Pisa
Santiago Justin Peregalli Politi
Medical Student
European University of Madrid, Spain
Alicia Perez Blanco
MD, PhD (Critical Care Medicine)
Fundacion Hospital Alcorcon/ Madrid
Connie Phung
MS Healthcare Administration
Marshall University
Leo Polchar
Human Sciences
University College London/ UK
Sue D. Porter
Bachelors in Sociology/ San Diego State University, CA
Masters in Business Administration/ St. Mary’s College, CA
Masters in Bioethics/ Union Graduate College and Mt. Sinai Medical Center, NY
Brianna Kaitlin Rader
Premedical Student; Medical Humanities (“Holisitic Approaches to Healthcare”)
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Antonia Reitter
Juris Doctor; PhD Candidate in Constitutional Law
University of Bonn, Germany
Research Assistant at the University of Bonn, Germany
Jessica Kirsten Richard
Bachelor of Arts/Bachelor of Law
Monash University
Tammy Cauley Rivers
Juris Doctor Candidate
University of South Carolina School of Law
Research Assistant at University of South Carolina School of Law
Olga Rosales Aedo
Medical Student
European University of Madrid, Spain
Jitka Rusová
Bioethics
Institute for Medical Humanities, First Faculty of Medicine
Charles University of Prague, Czch Rep.
Assistant at Faculty of Health Studies, University of Pardubice, Czech Rep.
Roberto Sanchez Sanz
Medical Student
European University of Madrid, Spain
Max Anthony Sauvé
Juris Doctor Candidate
University of South Carolina School of Law
Brian Rizzo Scales
Philosophy, Psychology, and Literature
Vanderbilt University
Elodie Schaffhauser
Medical Student and Master’s Candidate in Ethics
University of Strasbourg/France
Fang Shan, M.S.
PhD Candidate in Bioethics
Central South University, Changsha, China Bioethics
Roberto Daniel Sirvent
PhD in Theology and Ethics
London School of Theology/ UK
Associate Professor of Political and Social Ethics at Hope International University/ US
Timothy Michael Smilnak
Medical Student
SUNY Upstate Medical University
Dawne A. Southworth
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Husson University
United States Airforce Reserve, Technical Sergeant, Aerospace Medical Technician
Marta Spodenkiewicz
Specialization in Genetics at Reims University and
Master’s in Ethics at the University of Strasbourg/ France
Rachel Tina Shan Mei Teo
Philosophy and Psychology
Monash University/ Australia
Joseph Alexander Vinson
Medical Student
The Medical College of Georgia
Matthew B. Weatherford
Major in Philosophy, Minor in Classical Studies
The University of St. Thomas/ Houston,Texas
Christina Zorzano Martinez
Medical Student
European University of Madrid, Spain
2012 Lectures, Seminars, and Participants
2011 Lectures, Seminars, and Participants
2010 Lectures, Seminars, and Participants
2009 Lectures, Seminars, and Participants
