3 minute read
20 Years of Bioethics
By Kristen A. Schmitt There has never been a more critical time for bioethics. As new telehealth measures, vaccine development, resource allocation and other healthcare policies, agendas and action plans emerge, those trained to decipher ethical dilemmas become an invaluable resource on the frontlines.
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Bioethics practitioners help answer ethical questions within the healthcare system that span research, public health and clinical work and can go beyond the healthcare industry into academia, policymaking and community engagement. This year, Clarkson is celebrating the 20th anniversary of its bioethics graduate program, which includes doctors, nurses, lawyers and other professionals among its graduates. The program is offered jointly with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
“Our students are interested in better understanding how to handle difficult ethical conflicts,” says Paul Cummins, a research assistant professor of bioethics at Clarkson. “Students who enter the program directly after completion of their undergraduate degrees are often interested in obtaining the master’s degree or graduate certificate to make them more appealing in their medical or law school applications, especially if they plan on focusing on the humanistic components of medical care or health law, respectively.”
And the current bioethics coursework offered through the program is highly relevant with
20 Years of Bioethics
courses specifically focused on current pandemic-related issues and other timely topics like medicine and social justice, healthcare policy and bioethics and the law. For example, last summer, the Contemporary Issues in Bioethics course focused on ethics in a pandemic. Another course, Applying Ethics to Telehealth Practice, is ondeck this fall.
“Bioethics is an expanding field,” says Jane Oppenlander, interim chair of the Bioethics Department. “There are current issues with how to distribute scarce vaccines and address vaccination hesitancy, health inequalities and health disparities. Bioethics plays a crucial role in addressing all of these issues and evaluating emerging technologies. And, in the future, the field will remain essential with new innovations.”
While some industries may have experienced a COVID-related downtick, the bioethics community has only seen an increase in the need for individuals with this specialty. In fact, enrollment in Clarkson’s bioethics graduate program has increased by 175% since last year, says Cummins. Because of the pandemic, faculty converted courses that previously met in person for online delivery, which allowed for a broader reach to international students who may not have had the opportunity to take bioethics coursework or complete a graduate degree before. Adding to that, Cummins’ continuation of a National Institutes of Health Fogarty International Center R25 grant, which funds the Caribbean Research Ethics Education Initiative, has created a pathway for students in Mexico and Grenada to participate in Clarkson’s bioethics master’s degree program, and the program’s reach is still growing.
“So far, we’ve admitted 15 students in the first cohort of the grant,” says Cummins. “They’ll earn Master of Science degrees in Bioethics from Clarkson University, using faculty from the Autonomous University of Queretaro in Mexico and St. George’s University in Grenada.
“At the same time, we’re helping those two institutions develop their own master’s degrees in bioethics while simultaneously teaching students in two languages.”
“I think that it’s interesting that incoming students during COVID are now committing to a 30-credit MS degree path, rather than a quick 15-credit certificate,” adds Dan Capogna, director of graduate admissions & recruitment. “It’s a new trend. Previously, enrollment was the other way around. It’s like the pandemic has made them more committed to healthcare and is driving them to want to learn more in order to better produce at their jobs or to elevate within their careers.”
Further, a new bioethics minor is in the works and will be geared toward students in arts and sciences, engineering and health sciences.
“This new minor will give Clarkson undergraduate students across different disciplines an opportunity to get professional ethics training that’s relevant not only to their undergraduate degrees, but also their future career trajectories,” says Cummins.
While the 20th anniversary celebration planning was paused due to the pandemic, several webinars and other virtual panel events are in the works. With the push for continued development and innovation, and as we navigate through the pandemic, bioethics — and graduates of the bioethics program — will remain in high demand.
clarkson.edu/bioethics
From left: Prof. Jane Oppenlander and Prof. Paul Cummins
