Yale Bulletin and Calendar

September 6-13, 1999

Volume 28, Number 3

Guide reveals widespead interest
in bioethics on campus

For the first time, faculty members, students, staff and members of the wider New Haven community with an interest in bioethical issues can turn to one source to learn about the range of interdisciplinary research and teaching being done in that area at Yale.

The new publication, "Bioethics at Yale," was put together by the University's Interdisciplinary Bioethics Committee to serve as a "road map" of all of the University's offerings and research contributions related to the discipline of bioethics, according to Donald Green, a member of the committee and director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS). The Interdisciplinary Bioethics Committee was established under the auspices
of ISPS.

The 67-page resource guide includes course offerings, seminars, symposia and faculty research projects, as well as interdisciplinary activities on campus centered on the theme of bioethics.

A glance through the publication reveals a high level of student and faculty interest in bioethical issues: 92 undergraduate and graduate courses with bioethical content -- in departments as diverse as anthropology, economics and history and in the graduate and professional schools -- are offered during the academic year, and nearly 70 faculty members and students are engaged in research projects on bioethical issues.

"In recent years, the fast pace of biological discoveries and accompanying technological advances has focused attention on challenging and profound questions," says President Richard C. Levin in the publication's foreword. "How do we safeguard human beings taking part in scientific experiments? What are the moral implications of physician-assisted suicide, abortion, cloning? How can society reap the benefits of technological change while, at the same time, protecting the environment? How do we address such issues as a world economy outgrowing its ecosystems, the population explosion, and climate change? In order to ensure a better future for those generations which come after us, we need to seek some understanding of these and other bioethical dilemmas now."

To address some of these dilemmas, the ISPS started the Interdisciplinary Bioethics Committee in 1998 as part of an initiative to "help establish campus-wide, cross-disciplinary bioethical directives," Green notes in "Bioethics at Yale." The 90-member committee's four objectives, known collectively as the Interdisciplinary Bioethics Initiative, are to foster collaboration on bioethical issues in the social sciences, humanities and the graduate and professional schools; raise awareness of the scope of bioethical work being done around the campus; increase the level of grant-funded research activities at the University; and provide seed money for undergraduate and graduate courses, research programs and publications related to bioethics.

Visiting professor

As part of the committee's initiative, the University has invited leading bioethics scholar Albert R. Jonsen to serve as a visiting emeritus professor at the University during the 1999-2000 academic year. Jonsen, who received his doctorate in religious studies from Yale in 1967, is emeritus professor and immediate past chair of the department of medical history and ethics at the University of Washington. The award-winning bioethics professor has authored or coauthored six books, including "Source Book in Bioethics," "The New Medicine and the Old Ethics," "The Birth of Bioethics" and "A Short History of Medical Ethics." A past president of the Society for Health and Human Values, he served on the National Commission for Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research and the President's Commission for the Study of Ethical Problems in Medicine. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and is a fellow of the Hastings Institute.

During the fall semester, Jonsen will teach a seminar titled "Bioethics: Theory, Practice and Problems," which will examine the origins of bioethics. Using organ transplantation as a focus, Jonsen will also engage the class in an analysis of the philosophical, theological, legal, political and economic grounds of bioethical practices and policies. The course is open to juniors, seniors and graduate students.

In the spring, Jonsen will teach an undergraduate lecture course titled "Bioethics and the American Ethos."

Faculty Bioethics Workshop

The Interdisciplinary Bioethics Committee has also established the Faculty Bioethics Workshop to encourage faculty members with bioethical interests to discuss their works in progress with colleagues in other disciplines. During the 1999-2000 academic year, nine faculty members will discuss their current work. The first discussion, on Wednesday, Sept. 8, will feature Robert M. Burt, the Alexander M. Bickel Professor of Law, whose interests include the intersection of law and medicine, particularly with respect to issues surrounding death and assisted suicide. His talk will take place in the lower-level seminar room of ISPS, 88 Trumbull St. Lunch will be provided; those interested in attending should contact Carol Pollard at 432-6188.

Faculty from areas as diverse as the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Economic Growth Center, Divinity School, computer science department and Child Study Center are among the other workshop presenters.

"We hope this program will expose faculty members to different discipline's ways of viewing bioethical issues," says Dr. Robert J. Levine, director of the Faculty Bioethics Workshop, professor of internal medicine and chair of the medical school's Human Investigation Committee. "We also hope this will broaden our awareness of the rich and diverse resources available at Yale, resources on which we can draw as we plan future teaching and research programs."

All workshops are free and open to the public.

Other activities

Other events being offered as part of the University's Interdisciplinary Bioethics Initiative include the annual joint ISPS/Yale Hillel seminar series "Bioethics and Public Policy," which will feature speakers from Yale and around the nation in talks on medical, environmental and genetic bioethics. Each speaker will give a seminar (for Yale affiliates only) at ISPS during the day, followed by an evening public lecture at the Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale. The first seminar/lecture will be given on Wednesday, Sept. 29, by J. Gustave Speth, dean of the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, who will talk on "Ethics and the Formulation of Environmental Policy." Watch future issues of the Yale Bulletin & Calendar (YB&C) for further information on his talk.

On Friday, Oct. 1, the Interdisciplinary Bioethics Committee will host a symposium on the topic "The Ethics of Stem Cell Research." On Wednesday, Oct. 6, Richard Elliot Benedick, former deputy assistant secretary of state and the principal architect of the 1987 Montreal Protocol on protecting the ozone layer, will address the topic "Beyond Six Billion: Population, Environment and Climate." Further information on both of these events will appear in a future issue of the YB&C.

Bioethics website

The Interdisciplinary Bioethics Committee has also established a website on bioethics at Yale. Its address is www.yale.edu/isps.

For further information on ISPS programs and activities, or to obtain a copy of "Bioethics at Yale," contact Carol Pollard, project manager and editor of the publication, at 432-6188 or via e-mail at carol.pollard@yale.edu.

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